Clinton's Journal

Brownian Motion
On Sunday, Calvin and I awoke to the smell of fresh brownies cooling downstairs. Mmm... Yummy. Kay had gotten up early and baked some.

Later over dinner a discussion arose as to why that smell traveled so far, how smell works, and wended it's way all the way upstairs so quickly. We talked about the molecules of scent and how they travel in air. And that even in still air they travel because of the random push of atoms in moving air.

At absolute zero, nothing moves. At higher temperatures atoms move faster and faster. Larger molecules (scent) trapped in surroundings of smaller ones (air) get bumped around in a seemingly random walk around 3 dimensional space. There's a name for this motion:

Brownian Motion.

Thus ended the science lesson.

Tip your waitress, and try the veal. Thank you.

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