Sales ranks, Brownian motion, and cosmology...
'Middle World' is apparently officially 'out'. It would be interesting to study the statistical fluctuations of the Amazon sales ranking: do these follow the same mathematical laws as the book's subject, Brownian motion? Hmmm...
One thing I didn't touch on in the book is the rather direct link between Brownian motion--those dancing pollen grains as observed by Robert Brown on the morning of June 12th 1827 in an old house on Soho Square--and cosmology. Middle-World sized objects 'dance' restlessly because they are continually bombarded by much smaller molecules and atoms around them (in water, air, whatever). But what makes the atoms and molecules move?
As far as I can see the answer is, essentially, the creation of the Universe. Somehow it all happened so as to leave enough leftover energy for the atoms and molecules that finally condensed out of the cooling, expanding cosmic soup, that they would be zipping around instead of standing still. (OK, my cosmology is a bit ropey, any more accurate comments welcome...)
It was a significant advance in theories of matter when people (such as Daniel Bernoulli in the 18th century, but undoubtedly many others too) realised that a 'static' atom wasn't enough: atoms, whatever they were, had to be moving. Moving atoms/molecules give rise to the pressure of a gas, for instance. They also give rise to Brownian motion, which in turn has important consequences for proteins, life etc... but now's not the time to rewrite the whole book...
I can't think why I didn't mention the Brownian motion-cosmology link in the book. Imagine Robert Brown the botanist's reaction, that June morning, if someone had told him that what he'd just seen in his microscope was a window on the nature of the entire Universe...
Hmmm... x2.
One thing I didn't touch on in the book is the rather direct link between Brownian motion--those dancing pollen grains as observed by Robert Brown on the morning of June 12th 1827 in an old house on Soho Square--and cosmology. Middle-World sized objects 'dance' restlessly because they are continually bombarded by much smaller molecules and atoms around them (in water, air, whatever). But what makes the atoms and molecules move?
As far as I can see the answer is, essentially, the creation of the Universe. Somehow it all happened so as to leave enough leftover energy for the atoms and molecules that finally condensed out of the cooling, expanding cosmic soup, that they would be zipping around instead of standing still. (OK, my cosmology is a bit ropey, any more accurate comments welcome...)
It was a significant advance in theories of matter when people (such as Daniel Bernoulli in the 18th century, but undoubtedly many others too) realised that a 'static' atom wasn't enough: atoms, whatever they were, had to be moving. Moving atoms/molecules give rise to the pressure of a gas, for instance. They also give rise to Brownian motion, which in turn has important consequences for proteins, life etc... but now's not the time to rewrite the whole book...
I can't think why I didn't mention the Brownian motion-cosmology link in the book. Imagine Robert Brown the botanist's reaction, that June morning, if someone had told him that what he'd just seen in his microscope was a window on the nature of the entire Universe...
Hmmm... x2.
posted by mark haw at 11:53 am
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