Theory of Brownian motion and proof of atoms
Teoría del movimiento browniano y prueba de la existencia de los átomos
- Date
- 1905-1908 · confidence high
- Place
- Bern, Switzerland / Paris, France
- Credited to
- Albert Einstein; Marian Smoluchowski; Jean Perrin
- People
- 👤 Albert Einstein1879–1955👤 Jean Perrin1870–1942👤 Marian Smoluchowski1872–1917
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Einstein predicts that the zigzagging of suspended particles is due to molecular collisions and calculates their displacement; Perrin measures it in Paris (1908) and determines Avogadro's number. It convinces the last sceptics of the reality of atoms.
Smoluchowski obtained equivalent results in Lviv in 1906.
What it led to
- Universal acceptance of atomism
- Stochastic processes and diffusion equations
- Physics of colloids and soft matter
- Financial mathematics (Bachelier, Wiener)
Built on
- Bernoulli's principle1738
- Brown's observation (1827)
- Boltzmann's statistical mechanics
Made possible
- Ultramicroscope as a quantitative instrument
- Methods for measuring molecular sizes