Converting Brownian motion into work: Classical thought experiment brought to life in granular gas
Friday, June 18, 2010 - 16:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Researchers have for the first time experimentally shown, almost a century later, an idea dating from 1912. In that year the physicist Smoluchowski devised a prototype for an engine at the molecular scale in which he thought he could ingeniously convert Brownian motion into work. The team of scientists have now successfully constructed this device at the much larger scale of a granular gas.