Brownian motion

E1601

Brownian motion is the random, jittery movement of microscopic particles suspended in a fluid, whose explanation provided key evidence for the existence of atoms and the molecular nature of matter.


Statements (53)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Markov process
continuous-path process
continuous-time process
physical phenomenon
random process
stochastic process
alsoKnownAs Wiener process
cause collisions with molecules of the surrounding medium
describedAs jittery movement of microscopic particles
random motion of particles suspended in a fluid
dimension one-dimensional in its standard form
discoveredBy Robert Brown
discoveryYear 1827
field biology
chemistry
materials science
mathematical finance
probability theory
statistical physics
stochastic calculus
generalization Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process
fractional Brownian motion
multi-dimensional Brownian motion
hasMean zero
hasProperty Gaussian increments
continuous sample paths
starts at zero with probability 1
stationary independent increments
mathematicalFormalizationBy Norbert Wiener
mathematicalFormalizationYear 1923
namedAfter Robert Brown
observedIn microscopic particles in fluids
suspensions of pollen grains in water
providedEvidenceFor existence of atoms
molecular nature of matter
relatedConcept Fokker–Planck equation
Langevin dynamics
central limit theorem
diffusion
random walk
samplePathProperty almost surely nowhere differentiable
theoreticalExplanationBy Albert Einstein
Marian Smoluchowski
theoreticalExplanationYear 1905
usedIn Black–Scholes option pricing model
Einstein–Smoluchowski relation
Langevin equation modeling
derivation of the diffusion equation
modeling molecular motion in cells
modeling particle diffusion
modeling polymer dynamics
modeling stock price dynamics
varianceGrowth proportional to time


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