2010/07/31 by Philip Pearle, Kenneth Bart, David Bilderback +3 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.class-ph #physics.hist-ph #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1119/1.3475685
14.1 pages, 11 figures, to be published in the American Journal of Physics. This differs from the previous version only in the web site referred to in reference 3. Today, this Brownian motion web site was launched, and http://physerver.hamilton.edu/Research/Brownian/index.html, is now correct
arxiv published 2010/07/31 · arxiv created 2010/09/18 · arxiv updated 2015/05/19
A discussion is given of Robert Brown's original observations of particles ejected by pollen of the plant Clarkia pulchella undergoing what is now called Brownian motion. We consider the nature of those particles, and how he misinterpreted the Airy disc of the smallest particles to be universal organic building blocks. Relevant qualitative and quantitative investigations with a modern microscope and with a "homemade" single lens microscope similar to Brown's, are presented.