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Hydrodynamics versus Molecular Dynamics: Intertheory Relations in Condensed Matter Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Robert W. Batterman
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Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between continuum hydrodynamics and discrete molecular dynamics in the context of explaining the behavior of breaking droplets. It is argued that the idealization of a fluid as a continuum is actually essential for a full explanation of the drop breaking phenomenon and that, therefore, the less “fundamental,” emergent hydrodynamical theory plays an ineliminable role in our understanding.

Type
Reduction, Emergence, and Condensed Matter Physics
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 73 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Miriam Solomon , December 2006 , pp. 888 - 904
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Leo Kadanoff and Sidney Nagel for helpful discussions.

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