On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Edmund Storms <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> Harry, you don't seem to understand the concept of work. Consider that >> atoms in a lattice are held together by a force. They vibrate and this >> vibration contains energy as the heat capacity. Is a piece of salt doing >> work as it sits in the salt shaker? No, the material is doing no work even >> though a force is present and atoms are vibrating. Steady-state conditions, >> of which this is an example, do not involve work. Work is based on a net >> change in position as result of applied force. The salt sits still. It does >> not move. There is no net change in position of the atoms. If they move in >> one direction, they immediately move just as much in the opposite >> direction. If you want to imagine work being done during the first motion, >> it is immediately undone by the second motion. No net change has resulted. >> The system is fixed in space and it is not doing work. >> >> >
Ok, I realise why we diverge in our approaches to your model. I don't start with the assumption that the lattice is in a state of thermal equilibrium. I assume the presence of thermal fluxes and perhaps other energy fluxes as well which can do small amounts of work on the hydrotons. If these local fluxes are sporadic excess heat production will be sporadic as well. Harry
