Even worse is our definition of temperature... it should really be the reciprocal. The thermodynamic definition is:
1/T = dS/dE where S is entropy and E is energy
dS/dE has a nice intuitive ring to it "if I put a small amount of energy into the system, how will its entropy change", but since we declare that to be 1/T we allow crazy things like negative and infinite temperatures (these actually exist - and the negative temperatures are hotter than the positive ones).
[+] [-] sz|15 years ago|reply
1/T = dS/dE where S is entropy and E is energy
dS/dE has a nice intuitive ring to it "if I put a small amount of energy into the system, how will its entropy change", but since we declare that to be 1/T we allow crazy things like negative and infinite temperatures (these actually exist - and the negative temperatures are hotter than the positive ones).
[+] [-] jesusabdullah|15 years ago|reply
q = h (T_2-T_1)
become
q = h( 1/T'_2 - 1/T'_1 )
Perhaps unlike the case for pi, I think there's a good argument here for keeping temperature as-is.
[+] [-] URSpider94|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PaulHoule|15 years ago|reply
what's more direct?
[+] [-] biggus_dictus|15 years ago|reply