changes it is important to understand that our study is not to be concerned with thermal and chemical actions themselves, but with their results. The actions themselves are as a rule extremely complicated. Thus the details of behavior of the coal and air in a furnace are hopelessly complicated! The important practical thing,[1] however, is the amount of steam that can be produced by a pound of coal, and this depends upon (1) the condition of the water from which the steam is made, that is, whether the water is hot or cold to start with, (2) the condition of the air and of the coal which are to combine in the furnace, (3) the pressure and temperature of the steam which is to be produced, and (4) the condition of the flue gases as they enter the chimney. That is to say, the only things which it is necessary to consider are things which relate to quiescent substances. A quiescent substance may be said to be in a standing condition or state and the whole subject of heat (thermodynamics) may be said to refer to changes of state, that is, to changes from one quiescent condition to another quiescent condition without regard to the details of action which lead from one quiescent condition to the other.
Mechanical Energy and Heat Energy
In studying thermal and chemical changes we have to do with a new kind of energy. The gravitational energy of an elevated store of water can be wholly converted into mechanical work, the energy of two electrically charged bodies can be wholly converted into mechanical work (for example, by allowing the charged bodies to move towards each other), the kinetic energy of a moving car can be wholly converted into mechanical work, and so on. On the other hand, the energy of the hot steam which enters a steam engine from a boiler can not be wholly converted into mechanical work. Any store of energy which can be wholly converted into mechanical work may be called mechanical energy. The energy of the hot steam which enters a steam engine from a boiler is called heat energy.[2]
In the attempt to exclude all thermal changes from the purely mechanical discussion of energy one is confronted by the fact that friction (with its accompanying thermal changes) is always in evidence
- ↑ This practical matter is exactly of the same character as any purely scientific matter involving the application of thermodynamics. It is always a question concerning the correlation of measurable and sensible things.
- ↑ The important difference between mechanical energy and heat energy, namely, that one can be wholly converted into mechanical work whereas the other can not, may be clearly understood in terms of the atomic theory. Every particle of a moving car travels in the same direction and all of the particles work together to produce mechanical effect when the car is stopped; the molecules of hot steam, however, fly to and fro in every direction, and no method can be devised whereby the whole of the energy of the molecules of hot steam can be used to produce mechanical effect.
