Theory of inherently macroscopic processes, with application to heat and active transport

MANY macroscopic quantities have microscopic counterparts. The microscopic counterpart of gas pressure, for example, is the instantaneous mechanical force exerted by gas molecules on a unit area. In the analysis of such physical quantities the role of statistical mechanics is conceptually straightforward; it is the calculation of average (macroscopic) values for selected microscopic mechanical quantities A. Such calculations have contributed a great deal to our understanding of the form taken by the equation of state for various materials placed in different environments1.