What IS Heat Anyway? - Building Science Fundamentals Back in
grad school, I was taking a class in surface physics, and my
friend Steve asked, "What is temperature?" On first hearing that
question, you might think it's so obvious that it doesn't even
bear asking, and anyone who does give voice to it must be an
idiot. Right? Wrong! Perhaps the most important lesson I learned
in my seven years of grad school was to ask questions, even
about things that seem so basic as not to need questioning.
There a lot of insights and deeper understanding available when
you start questioning your basic beliefs. So, let's look at a
question related to Steve's - What is heat? All of us who work
or play in the world of building science talk about it, so it's
a good idea to know a little about this basic concept. Actually,
the two questions are related. Heat and temperature go together,
but they're not the same thing. Before we can understand heat
and temperature, though, we've got to talk about thermal energy.
It sounds like the