Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Of Men (and Women) and Molecules

Here's a thought about the parallels between physics and people. Kinetic molecular theory is used to model the behavior of large assemblies of gas molecules. It correctly describes the average energy, how the assembly will respond to energy inputs, being compressed, allowed to expand, etc. It can tell how many molecules will have a given energy. It cannot tell you much about the location, speed, or direction of an individual. Seems similar to knowing about populations not telling you much about individual people. I like to consider people as individuals rather than as members of populations.