Burning Candle and Levels of Organization

The burning candle discussed in Faraday's lectures is used as an example to discuss the relationships between physical theories at different levels of organization: continuum mechanics at the macro level and statistical and quantum mechanics at the micro level. The first part of the paper examines the connections between theoretical and experimental physics. Physics theory serves as the foundation of the research program, but experimental research is a measure of ongoing development. Reasonable extrapolationism denotes a situation where the ideas of physical theory contribute to the development of experimental research. On the other hand, radical extrapolationism is used for a situation where the ongoing discussion goes far beyond experimental physics. In the second part of the paper, the arrows of explanation between continuum mechanics and statistical mechanics are considered and classified within the framework of the proposed terminology. The estimation of the properties of a substance from molecular constants and the derivation of continuum mechanics equations from statistical mechanics are considered. Qualitative explanations and emergence are also discussed.