• Question: How has Brownian Motion changed over the years?

    Asked by anon-193416 to Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Heidi, Emma, Carl on 11 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Emma Crawford

      Emma Crawford answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      I had to look into this as its been a while since I last studied physics! So from what I understand Brownian motion is when particles in both liquids and gases (collectively called fluids) move randomly. They do this because they are bombarded by the other moving particles in the fluid. Larger particles can be moved by light, fast-moving molecules.

      Brownian motion is named after the botanist Robert Brown, who first observed this in 1827. This was then confirmed by Albert Einstein in 1905 and provided evidence for particle theory. See here for more info: https://www.britannica.com/science/Brownian-motion

      As to how it has changed over the years, I’m not sure what you mean here? But I would suggest looking into scientific journals/ papers about this specific topic if you are keen to follow any advancements in the research of this specific theory.

    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      Brownian motion is often used to define Random movement, based as it is on the movement of larger visible particles as they are hit by smaller faster non-visible particles. I remember at school looking through a microscope at smoke to see this effect.
      So I would guess this random movement has not changed over the years but how we use our understanding of this process has.
      I know that brownian motion has often been used in my kind of research to help understand the movement of animals. Brownian motion, which we can model with computers, is used as the basis for animals moving completely randomly within an area. These models can then get more and more complex with terms such as Brownian random walks, levy flight and diffusion models.

    • Photo: Heidi Gardner

      Heidi Gardner answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      I was rubbish at physics when I was at school and I haven’t studied it for 10 years or so.. so my answer is probably not the most useful one.

      I did some research online and found this research paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5476231/. To be honest, I found that pretty difficult to understand, so kept looking and found this: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zgr2pv4/revision/5 which made a lot more sense to me!

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