It doen not immediatly change the temperature. It acts by proxy.

If you never met one of those people that say "hey, it's too hot here, let me lower the thermostat" just after they turn the AC on, you are a very lucky guy.

just like the steering wheel does not turn the car, and the rocket engine doesn't put the rocket into space.

The controller controls the input. The state changes, because the control input is changed.

The thermostat is not a timer.

Do you honestly not know what his point was?

I didn't argue with the rest of his point. That he said that the thermostat changes the time the burner is on is not true. A thermostat is not a timer. Time on is not the controlled variable.

Come on, now you're taking semantic quibbling to farcical levels. Yes it is true that a thermostat is not a timer, nobody claimed that. What it (in it simplest form) does is turn on the burner until the set temperature has been reached.

My point was, for any reasonable, non-autistic reader, it was perfectly clear that the GP knows how a thermostat works and that his point was that many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates, or at least whatever is output by that burner/installation (be it water or air). Now I don't have an opinion on that matter, but I'm annoyed by your littering of the conversation over a slight sloppiness in expression in a context that doesn't call for the level of correctness you, from your high horse, are calling for.

> many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates,

There might be many such people but that is not what he said. I apologize that my comment clashes with your aesthetic preference of what a discussion should look like.

Well I don't think we're going to agree but I upvoted you nonetheless because I like the style of your comeback :)

that's great. i don't really love thermostats that much:)