Brownian ratchet
English
editEtymology
editIn reference to Brownian motion.
Noun
editBrownian ratchet (plural Brownian ratchets)
- (physics) An apparent perpetual motion machine, the subject of a thought experiment, that would consist of a tiny paddle wheel and a ratchet, and might seem to be able to extract useful work from random fluctuations (heat) in a system at thermal equilibrium, in violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
- Synonym: Feynman-Smoluchowski ratchet