A natureza do calor: Passados dois séculos, será que a teoria do calórico ainda é de alguma forma uma idéia atraente ou, até mesmo, útil?

Abstract

A natureza do calor: passados dois séculos, será que a teoria do calórico ainda é de alguma forma uma idéia atraente ou, até mesmo, útil?The nature of heat: after two centuries, will it be that the caloric theory is still in some way an attractive idea or, even, useful?Antonio AbstractIn the beginning of the 19 th Century, there were two theories absolutely different on the nature of the heat: the Mechanical Theory of the Heat and the Caloric Theory. For the first theory, heat was considered as 'a vibration' of the atoms that compose the matter. Thus, the temperature represented the intensity of those vibrations and their propagation was a transfer of heat. When two bodies of different temperatures were put in contact, the atoms of the hottest body communicated part of its vibrations to