Heat as a Fluid

Metaphor: Heat is often described as “flowing” like water through pipes, rivers, or into objects, suggesting it is a substance that moves.

Problem / Misleading Aspect: This metaphor encourages imagining heat as a tangible, directional substance that can be poured, trapped, or transported at will. It obscures the relational statistical mechanics that govern energy distribution, and may mislead learners into thinking that heat has agency, inertia, or “desire” to move. The mental picture of heat as a liquid can distort understanding of how particles actually exchange energy in a relational field.

Relational Ontology Correction: Heat is a manifestation of energy potentials actualised across relational interactions between particles. There is no fluid to pour, no river to dam. Energy redistribution is emergent from probabilistic alignments, not the motion of a substance with independent existence.

Parody / Conceptual Highlight: Taken literally, one might imagine engineers installing pipes to divert heat from a coffee cup, or heat “spilling” across the kitchen floor in miniature rivers. Radiators would need dams and levees, and your stovetop would require flood insurance. The humour makes clear the conceptual danger: the fluid metaphor imposes agency and substance on purely relational energy exchanges.