X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Brownian motion


Brownian motion

Brown was studying pollen grains of the plant Clarkia pulchella suspended in water under a microscope when he observed minute particles, ejected by the pollen grains, executing a jittery motion.

Jan Ingenhousz had described the irregular motion of coal dust particles on the surface of alcohol in 1785 — nevertheless the discovery is often credited to the botanist Robert Brown in 1827.

Clarkia pulchella

Clarkia pulchella is most famous for its use by botanist Robert Brown in the discovery of Brownian motion.

Magnetotaxis

An alternative explanation is that by keeping the bacteria aligned against Brownian motion, they are more efficient at chemotaxis.

Perpetual motion

Brownian motion would cause surrounding gas molecules to strike the paddles, but the ratchet would only allow it to turn in one direction.

Physics engine

There is a constant Brownian motion jitter to all particles in our universe as the forces push back and forth against each other.


Chung Kai-lai

He then transferred to Stanford University in 1961, where he made fundamental contributions to the study of Brownian motion and laid the framework for the general mathematical theory of Markov chains.


see also

Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen

Wilhelm Ostwald, one of the leaders of the anti-atom school, later told Arnold Sommerfeld that he had been converted to a belief in atoms by Einstein's complete explanation of Brownian motion.