ISCI 2A18 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Boltzmann Constant, Brownian Motion, Optical Tweezers
6 Dec 2016
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Optical tweezers intense laser light creates a potential well. Trap polystyrene beads (dead) in a roughly parabolic potential. Particles are di-electric, so are pulled into areas with most intense light (will lower. Particles do not jiggle on their own must be smacked by other bodies. Not many collisions have enough velocity, but those that do will have a macroscopic effect. Brownian motion is increased with temperature clue that it has to do with thermal motion. = 3/2kbt where kb is boltzmann"s constant. Einstein published 4 papers: on brownian motion (like phd thesis), the photoelectric effect, electrodynamics of moving bodies (special relativity), and e. Einstein got nobel prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, which was crucial in the development of later theories of quantum mechanics. He stated that brownian motion was due to collisions with h2o molecules, and made an experimentally-testable prediction using kb and na, related to idea of random walks.
