Agreed, my reply was not very good :-( I'll try again.

On Tuesday, 27 September 2016 14:38:14 UTC+1, JohnD wrote:
"Alastair" wrote in message
...

Whatever happened to Mr Occam?

He died long before the wave particle duality of electromagnetic radiation
was an issue.
Curious then that the validity of eg the Theorem of Pythagoras didn't cease
when he pegged it?

OK, how about this?

In my scheme: a cold body radiates cold radiation which on hitting another warmer body cools it.

In the meteorological scheme: a cold body emits radiation which hits a second body. Since the radiation from the first body is less than the radiation emitted by the second warmer body, then the second body cools because it is emitting more radiation than it is absorbing.

Which scheme do you think Mr Occam would choose?

Those two concepts correspond to the wave particle duality of light.

In which way exactly?

Rumford proposed to two rays of waves; Prevost proposed two rays of a
physical fluid.

Rumford proposed two 'rays' of waves; Prevost proposed two 'streams/rays' of a physical fluid.

I'm struggling to parse the first clause of your reply, but at a guess
you're suggesting that the common factor is simply the word 'two'. Hardly a
compelling argument, I'd suggest.

No, I was trying to say that both schemes are the same, except in Rumford's scheme the rays are waves and in Prevost's scheme they are particles.

What I am describing is standard physics. It is just that, strangely, nobody seems to have used the term cold radiation to describe radiation from a cold body before.