Random Force & Brownian Motion - Sixty Symbols

Professor Bowley discusses Albert Einstein, Brownian motion and whether pollen is alive. More videos at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• random
• force
• brownian
• motion

[PERSONIFICATIONOFYAY]

I'm sure they've gone pass sixty symbols by now

[sixtysymbols]

Indeed, we're on our "second sixty" now... more details at the sixty symbols website!

[tjosbourne]

i usually have my brownian motions after i wake up, right before i jump in the shower.

[TheLensmith]

Yes sir , Invoke the quantum , it always causes the other side to start bashing into each other at random uniil they run out of energy and resort to swearing.

[TheLightningStalker]

Brownie in motion is one of my favorite subjects. I like to study it as often as I can. I can tell you about my balls whizzing, but you probably don't want to hear about that.

[antiHUMANDesigns]

@wormguts Yepp, unless quantum mechanics is atcually correct, and that quantum events really are truly random, which I don't think. I'm a determinist aswell.

[htomerif]

@systematic101 Thats what you would think, but this would imply some kind of larger order coordinated movement of molecules than simply on the single molecule level, even if the coordination is only for brief times and on microscopic levels. I would actually have a few questions about that to ask a physicist well versed in that subject, though I don't know any.

[systematic101]

@htomerif It would be far more than just 1 molecule. Think of it like billions of nanoscopic waves crashing against the side of the pollen in all directions. The differences in the strength of the waves determine the direction the pollen will move.

[htomerif]

I'm confused. I threw some math at it to see what stuck, and using 3000 grains per mg for pollen, you end up with a pollen grain being 1.1*10^16 more massive than a molecule of water. Wouldn't a single molecule of water "banging" into a pollen grain have to have an enormous velocity to make it move visibly even under a microscope? I mean, I guess not, but its still hard to understand.

[FreeGluon]

Love the angry have I finished at the end!

[Esudao]

@gallardoelise where the layer of grains is thinner, more force from the bottom is distributed to the grain, so yes, the ball is more likely to jump in that direction.

and yes, if everything was perfectly aligned, probably the ball would stay in the center.

but for that to happen, every bump of every grain to it's surrounding grains and the bump from the plate onto the bottom grain would always have to be exactly like before, so the sphere's always hit each other in exactly the same spot...

[Esudao]

@Cezarijus it does, but a small thing like a pollen seen under a microscope shows a similar movement. that's how they got the idea of the brownian motion of atoms in the first place.

[petkndy]

Is this not how Einstine prouved the existence of the Atom. ? 

that the pollin grains were moved or agitated by the atoms or electrons of the atoms in the water moving (as they do).

[inventbyboonchai]

no need animations , no wind to blow balls , no vibration , no elastic band , let's see my invention , and this Brownian motion model is the future model . let's see it by click inventbyboonchai under this cooment