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The Emergence of the Macroworld: A Study of Intertheory Relations in Classical and Quantum Mechanics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Malcolm R. Forster  and
Alexey Kryukov
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Abstract

Classical mechanics is empirically successful because the probabilistic mean values of quantum mechanical observables follow the classical equations of motion to a good approximation (Messiah 1970, 215). We examine this claim for the one-dimensional motion of a particle in a box, and extend the idea by deriving a special case of the ideal gas law in terms of the mean value of a generalized force used to define “pressure.” The examples illustrate the importance of probabilistic averaging as a method of abstracting away from the messy details of microphenomena, not only in physics, but in other sciences as well.

Type
Reduction and Structure of Theories
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2003 , pp. 1039 - 1051
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

We are thankful for the criticisms and comments of two anonymous referees and the participants at the PSA meetings in Milwaukee, November, 2002.

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