I have been trying to comment here since the disruption, without success. This has given me time to read all the other comments. It is embarrassing, but I will post it anyways.

Entry posted by Myr in Word of the Day 13 hours ago

The process was analyzed thermodynamically to ensure efficiency.

............

It must of been a very heated exchange.

(at the time it seemed quite humorous to me, now, in reflection maybe a just a little bit funny? )

What's hard for most people to grok about thermodynamics, or the way heat behaves, is that in every system, heat tries to achieve equilibrium. It sounds like a simple concept, but it is the ball-buster of physics students the world over.

Consider the case of running water into a bathtub on a cold morning. The water in the pipes is cold until the hot water from the water heater makes it to the faucet. Depending on how far away it is, the first gallon or two is cold and then the hot, steamy water makes it. Sometimes, you can literally see the convective currents in the water as it tries to find equilibrium. A fun experiment might be to drop a little ink in the water to better see what is happening.

The equations to figure out what the temperature of the water will be when 2 1/2 gallons of 40 degree water gets mixed with a dozen gallons of 110 degree water are quite elaborate, but most people aren't that thermodynamically sophisticated and simply put their foot in the water and stir it up.