How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
BOOK II: The Power of Three (#53. "The Mystery of Brownian Motion")
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Tuesday, October 18, 2022
“These motions were such as to satisfy me, after frequently repeated observation, that they arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself.”
– Robert Brown (Summary of Brownian motion.)
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CONSIDERATION #53 – “The Mystery of Brownian Motion”
PREFACE
With the discovery of the microscope, modern scientists found entirely new worlds of microscopic possibility to study and investigate. However, it also introduced an entirely new set of problems to consider. The most critical problem at the time was a mysterious microscopic movement called “Brownian Motion.”
Early single lens microscopes allowed observers to perceive previously imperceptible realities such as living cells and some kinds of bacteria, such as yeast. This enabled scientists at the time to study these tiny new discoveries attempting to connect their world with ours. However, there were now new observations about the world that could not be explained. Brownian motion was one of those new unexplained observations.
“At first, this movement was attributed to some yet unknown ‘organic’ action.”
In 1827, a botanist named Robert Brown was using an early microscope to study “pollen.” The pollen on the slide was immersed in water to keep it from drying out. Brown noticed that the pollen “suspended” in the water appeared to move, for no reason whatsoever. They also moved in a similar non-random pattern each time he observed this motion. At first, this movement was attributed to some yet unknown “organic” action. However, Brown substituted organic matter, such as pollen, with inorganic matter such as rust, glass, and even smoke to test this hypothesis. Brown discovered that the inorganic matter was affected in the same way that the organic matter had been affected. Something else was going on here.
“A new door leading to a theoretical universe based on theoretical entities was about to be opened.”
It is at this point in scientific history that classical and theoretical physics begin to merge. The next step in solving the Brownian motion mystery would not involve more sophisticated technology to empirically “detect” and observe this new imperceptible mystery; it would involve a new kind of rational mathematics that could “predict” it. A new door leading to a theoretical universe based on theoretical entities was about to be opened. Once scientists opened this door, the empirical certainties of our objective reality began to crumble, eventually resulting in a model of the universe based entirely on abstract mathematical reasoning called String Theory.
CONSIDERATION #53 – The Mystery of Brownian Motion
Establishing Atomic Theory
Although theoretical entities, called atoms, had been hypothesized since the early Greeks, they were still a completely theoretical entity in 1905. While some scientists, such as Ludwig Boltzmann, had aggressively argued throughout his life for their existence based on pure theory, many refused to believe such unsubstantiated theoretical abstractions without proof.
The continuing debate of that period regarding the existence of atoms has been beautifully summarized in the following words by Jacob Bronowski in his Ascent of Man:
“Who could think that, only in 1900, peoples were battling, one might say to the death, over the issue whether atoms are real or not. The great philosopher Ernst Mach in Vienna said, NO. The great chemist Wilhelm Ostwald said, NO. And yet one man, at that critical turn of the century, stood up for the reality of atoms on fundamental grounds of theory. He was Ludwig Boltzmann… The ascent of man teetered on a fine intellectual balance at that point, because had the anti-atomic doctrines then really won the day, our advance would certainly have been set back by decades, and perhaps a hundred years.’ Therefore, one must not underestimate the importance of Einstein’s paper in 1905 on the theory of Brownian motion as it provided a testing ground for the validity of the molecular kinetic theory. It is an irony of fate that, just when atomic doctrine was on the verge of intellectual victory, Ludwig Boltzmann felt defeated and committed suicide in 1906.”
– Debashish Chowdhury (100 Years of Einstein’s Theory of Brownian Motion: from Pollen Grains to Protein Trains.)
As scientists began investigating the previously unknown microscopic world, they immediately experienced anomalies they could not explain. The first of these aberrations was known as Brownian motion. Using microscopes, scientists noticed that microscopic particles suspended in a gas or liquid would randomly move in a rapid oscillatory motion. Robert Brown, a botanist, was the first scientist to actively consider this unusual and unexpected occurrence.
“Brown noticed this peculiar motion occurring in pollen particles suspended in water.”
While investigating the fertilization process of a newly discovered species of flowering plant called Clarkia pulchella, Brown noticed this peculiar motion occurring in pollen particles suspended in water. Brown originally agreed with conventional wisdom that these microscopic particles moved because of some kind of biological activity within themselves because they were organic. However, in 1865, after further investigation using inorganic particles such as glass chips, granite chips, and even smoke, Brown demonstrated that the same motion occurred with virtually any microscopic particle. He also noticed that the motion became more rapid as the temperature was increased.
POSTSCRIPT
The discovery of “Brownian Motion” would alter the course of modern science. Despite the advantages of the newly discovered microscope, nothing perceivable could be observed to cause Brownian motion. Something smaller than could be seen even with a microscope was likely the cause of this microscopic anomaly. Something still not yet perceivable.
Here, once again, we see the combination of the empirical and the rational in discovering and determining the cause of Brownian motion. Robert Brown uses the new microscope to “detect through observation” a previously unknown anomaly at the microscopic level of perception. However, the “cause” of this microscopic motion is undetectable at the microscopic level. Therefore, scientists begin to “rationally speculate” about this undetectable and imperceptible “cause” for the problem called “Brownian Motion.” This speculation leads to a conclusion that the “cause” must be something too small to be perceived even with a microscope. This speculation leads to the possibility of a new “theoretical entity” called an atom.
The person who empirically, rationally, and mathematically makes this connection is Albert Einstein.
Next week Einstein begins the “Atomic Age” by mathematically proving the existence of atoms and molecules.
Expand the Conversation by Upgrading to “Reality by a Thread!”
Excerpt from Tomorrow’s FREE PREVIEW of Untangling the Knots of Reality – Podcast #19: “Untangling the Scientific Method. Watch for it in Tomorrow’s Inbox!
This Week on “The Thread”
•Untangling the Knots of Reality Podcast: “Untangling the Scientific Method” (“Descartes’ Scientific Method represents an attempt to escape the limitations of the past by questioning everything the past represents. However, in the end, it symbolizes the incredible weight and influence of the past in our understanding of How Things Work. Descartes does not eliminate the past’s influence on the “truth.” However, he does alter the determination of its application.” )
•Reality by a Thread (Discussion Thread): Preview of Book V – This Week: Empirical & Rational Abstractions (“It’s been a long time getting here, but we are now at a point of considering some of the underlying foundational challenges related to contemporary issues such as science and religion. We are beginning to see a “chasm of duality” growing not only in this duality, but many other Western dualities as well. We think our disagreements are about religion, politics, or social reform, but these are all just symptoms of a deeper underlying condition: our long held understanding of Reality based on a balance of Empiricism and Rationalism is crumbling…”
•FREE PDF Download of Book IV: “The Cosmic Symphony – Overtones of String Theory” plus other discounts and benefits!
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