Is Brownian motion a deterministic system? I.e the motion of all particles are completely determined or is there an innate indeterminism like quantum systems?
[Physics] Is Brownian motion a deterministic system
brownian motiondeterminism
brownian motiondeterminism
Is Brownian motion a deterministic system? I.e the motion of all particles are completely determined or is there an innate indeterminism like quantum systems?
Best Answer
If you describe the combined system of the molecules of the liquid and the Brownian particle and you know the mechanism of the collisions and all initial conditions, then it is deterministic.
If you want to describe only the Brownian particle, then you would do so by a stochastic processes (called Brownian motion or the Wiener process) and it would be non-deterministic (i.e. random or stochastic).
Does this answer your question?