Brownian motion and molecular reality : a study in theory-mediated measurement / George E. Smith and Raghav Seth.

9780190098056 (electronic book)

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

English

1 online resource : illustrations.

QC184 .S65 2020

530.47509

Legend has it that Jean Perrin's experiments on Brownian motion between 1905 and 1913 'put a definite end to the long struggle regarding the real existence of molecules.' Close examination of these experiments, however, shows how little access they gained to the molecular realm. They did succeed in determining mean kinetic energies of particles in Brownian motion, but the values for molecular magnitudes Perrin inferred from them simply presupposed that those energies match the mean kinetic energies of molecules in the surrounding fluid. This monograph explains how Perrin's measurements of the kinetic energies in Brownian motion were nevertheless exemplars of theory-mediated measurement - the practice of inferring values for inaccessible quantities from values of accessible proxies via theoretical relationships between them.

Legend has it that Jean Perrin's experiments on Brownian motion between 1905 and 1913 'put a definite end to the long struggle regarding the real existence of molecules.' Close examination of these experiments, however, shows how little access they gained to the molecular realm. They did succeed in determining mean kinetic energies of particles in Brownian motion, but the values for molecular magnitudes Perrin inferred from them simply presupposed that those energies match the mean kinetic energies of molecules in the surrounding fluid. This monograph explains how Perrin's measurements of the kinetic energies in Brownian motion were nevertheless exemplars of theory-mediated measurement - the practice of inferring values for inaccessible quantities from values of accessible proxies via theoretical relationships between them.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on September 15, 2020).

Oxford studies in philosophy of science.
Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780190098025

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