THE NEW APPROACH TO TEACHING APPLIED THERMODYNAMICS — A COMMENT

IN RECENT YEARS a number of textbooks on applied thermodynamics (of American origin or American‐inspired) have given considerable emphasis to a new and restricted definition of the word ‘heat’. The actual definition takes various forms. From some it appears that heat must now be considered solely as energy in transit due to a temperature gradient and is not a form of energy that can exist inside a body. From others, that heat must be considered as an interaction between systems at different temperatures, the direction of the interaction being purely conventional or metaphorical.