Papers by Keyword: Einstein

Abstract: Random walk is the central concept in the mathematical formalization of the diffusion coefficient and so when asked a year ago to present a talk at a diffusion conference it appeared to be a totally appropriate topic. I spent most of my career studying diffusion and even after twenty years in retirement I believed I could write an interesting story about the importance of random walk to diffusion. Unfortunately when I sat down to write I discovered two problems: in the majority of materials that I investigated atoms did follow a random walk; and the history of random walk has been well documented and shows little connection to diffusion. The phrase was coined in 1905 at a time of rapid changes in physics. Scientists are not accustomed to writing history and as Henry Ford said around the same period of time “History is bunk”. He also remarked, "You can have any color (car) as long as it's black". This essay presents my story (not his- or her- tory) of why the use of the phrase random walk in discussions of diffusion in solids is also bunk.

Abstract: The story of the creation of Einstein’s theory of Brownian motion is considered to the background of Einstein private life and understanding of science at the end of the 19th and the very beginning of the 20th century.