> Efficiencies over 100% bother physics-type people so much they had to
> invent another term for heat pumps :o)    Coefficient of performance? Pow=
er
> out divided by power in? Sounds like efficiency to me. ;)

Obviously not a Physics-type person.

I have yet to see a description of heat pump operation that makes good
intuitive sense.
I'm certainly not saying that that cannot be done (as it obviously
can) but, whereas most physical processes can be described with a
'join the dots' description that makes sense at a basic level, I've
not seen such for heast pumps. I obviously should draw one.

A subset of modern processes that do not, cannot and have not got
'join the dots' descriptions, and as it happens, a vitally important
subset for modern engineering, are those which involve
quantum-mechanical processes. In anything involving QM one of the
steps in a join the dots diagram MUST be labelled "... and then, a
miracle happens..." . QM involves magic, arcanery, non-determinism and
(dare I say it) metaphysics as real (or unreal) as anything in any
other suspect realm (such as eg social sciences ;-) ) but "Physics
types" accept it without murmur and without, nowadays, question. QM
just happens, our whole reality is built on smoke and mirrors, it
works, nothing to see here, move along ... .  Besides WM heat-pumps
are tame :-).

PS: Anyone who wishes to explain QM with an intuitive join-the-dots
description to the stage where it does not need "metaphysics" has my
rapt attention. Also, probably, that of much of the world's scientific
community and as many Nobel prizes as they wish to print. Queue here
.... .



         Russell
--=20
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