UID:
almahu_9948594135002882
Umfang:
1 online resource :
,
illustrations (black and white).
ISBN:
9780190098056 (ebook) :
Serie:
Oxford studies in philosophy of science
Inhalt:
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.
Anmerkung:
Also issued in print: 2020.
Weitere Ausg.:
Print version : ISBN 9780190098025
Sprache:
Englisch
URL:
Oxford scholarship online
