2003/05/05 by Frank G. Borg, Frank Borg, Borg, Frank G.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #General Physics (physics.gen-ph) #Process Optimization and Integration #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #physics.gen-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0305011
arxiv created 2003/05/05 · openalex publication_date 2003/05/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Although osmosis is a familiar phenomenon, and of pivotal importance in natural systems, it is seldom explained how it might work on the molecular level (if treated at all in physics text books). The standard treatment of osmosis in thermodynamics employs the concept of the chemical potential and does not give any clues how the process "really" works. On the other hand one may also encounter conflicting qualitative and molecular explanations of osmosis. We use the case of osmosis in the present paper to elucidate different ways to "explain" and "understand" physical phenomena. The role of qualitative understanding of physical phenomena is emphasized. However, as the case of osmosis demonstrates, there may be a big gap between the abstract macroscopic theory and molecular conceptions of the mechanism.