Monday, November 05, 2007

不知大家有沒有想過這問題 -- 甚麼是熱?

Internal energy of a system is the total kinetic energy and potential energy of all particles in the system.

大家中學時代所讀的物理書也是這樣解說吧?但是,這和我們感覺到的熱,好像是兩碼子的事。這問題曾給我極大困擾,不知為何最近又勾了出來。

熱能會由高流去低,直到達至平衡。但我們感受到的熱不會是熱能吧?人體體溫 37 度,但在香港夏天最熱的日子也不會達至 37 度,而我們仍然感覺到天氣很炎熱。如果我們身處一個超過體溫的環境,感覺會有甚麼分別?去過炎熱地方的朋友可告訴我嗎?

在香港,無論是炎夏還是寒冬,氣溫都比體溫低,但我們會感到「熱」和「冷」,這個熱究竟是甚麼?讀完三年大學物理還不能解答,真是失敗,怪唔得我的 thermodynamics / statistical mechanics 咁差勁。你們這班物理學碩士/博士懂嗎?教教小弟吧。

1 comment:

Pomme d'amour said...

I think our perception of "hottness" is deeply connected to our nervous system and how our brains work. Looking from this aspect, it is not necessary that the surrounding is having a higher temperature than our body when we feel hot. Do you agree? We feel hot just because our nerves sense that the surrounding temperature is higher than the temperature that we are comfortable with.