Brownian ratchet

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

In reference to Brownian motion.

Noun[edit]

Brownian ratchet (plural Brownian ratchets)

  1. (physics) An apparent perpetual motion machine, the subject of a thought experiment, that would consist of a tiny paddle wheel and a ratchet, and might seem to be able to extract useful work from random fluctuations (heat) in a system at thermal equilibrium, in violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
    Synonym: Feynman-Smoluchowski ratchet

See also[edit]

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