1.3. The Misleading Term "Heat"

On this website we try to avoid the usage of the term 'heat' as a scientific technical term. In scientific context 'heat' has prooved to be an unfavorable term. In thermodynamic context it has been used since the 19th century to describe a certain property of a thermal work process - but the semantical meaning of 'heat' is not that of a process*. This faulty use has been producing inconsistencies up to the present time since the 19th century. To avoid errors of comprehension we use the following terms:
Thermal energy describes a quantum energetic state.
Thermal work describes a certain process** changing the energetic state of a system by
thermal radiation as emission or absorption.
Thermal capacity and entropy describe thermal properties of matter.

Further details on both models you find by clicking on "The Shelf Model" or an "The Fluid Model" in the left frame.

 *A detailed semantic examination of the heat term can be found here:
    The semantic problem of the "heat" term.

** In chapter 6 we focus on the specialties of thermal and volume work.