Thermal Physics Questions.

An ongoing list of questions about thermal physics...

- What is temperature? What is heat? How does that relate to energy (Joules)? Why work with temperature at all and not just joules? Is it fundamental or more anthropomorphic?

- Is 'heat' a distinct source or form of energy? Or is it just an old misunderstanding of other forces (e.g. lattice vibration)? Then what causes heat? What causes energy?

- How does total internal energy relate to it's temperature? how come we don't need mc^2 for temperature?

- How does heat travel within a solid? What is a phonon? What is a virtual particle? Just a tool for analysis?

- Why does heat sometimes travel as photons and other times as phonons? Why is photon velocity related to c (electromagnetic) but phonon is related to speed of sound (vibration)?

- How does energy/heat relate to phase transitions?

- What is convection removing from a surface, exactly? And how does it do this?

- I don't have a big picture understanding of energy transfer a) through a material (conduction), b) energy removed (convection) and c) energy states (radiation) (ie how are they integrated?)

- Does thermodynamics integrate into the cube of physics? If not does it integrate into physical theory at all?

- Perhaps thermal engineering is an applied science rather than a fundamental/theoretical branch of physics?

- No answer from the quantum realm. What is the temperature of a single electron? of a photon?