English

Discrete and continuous description of physical phenomena

General Physics 2017-09-13 v1

Abstract

The values of many phenomena in the Nature zz are determined in some discrete set of times t_n, separated by a small interval Δt\Delta t (which may also represent a coordinate, etc.). Let the zz value in neighbour point tn+1=tn+Δtt_{n+1}=t_n+\Delta t be expressed by the evolution equation as z(tn+1)=z(tn+Δt)=f(z(tn))z(t_{n+1})= z(t_n+\Delta t)=f(z(t_n)). This equation gives {\it\underline{a discrete description}} of phenomenon. Considering phenomena at tΔtt\gg \Delta t this equation is transformed often into the differential equation allowing to determine z(t)z(t) -- {\underline{\it continuous description}}. It is usually assumed that the continuous description describes correctly the main features of a phenomenon at values t>>Δtt>> \Delta t. In this paper I show that the real behavior of some physical systems can differ strongly from that given by the continuous description. The observation of such effects may lead to the desire to supplement the original evolutionary model by additional mechanisms, the origin of which require special explanation. We will show that such construction may not be necessary -- simple evolution model can describe different observable effects. This text contains no new calculations. Most of the discussed facts are well known. New is the treatment of the results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1704.03322,
  title  = {Discrete and continuous description of physical phenomena},
  author = {I. F. Ginzburg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.03322},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

7 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:14:13.064Z