Random Walks
The study of long chain polymers has been a source of problems within the realms of statistical mechanics since about the 1950s. One of the reasons however that scientists were interested in their study is that the equations governing the behavior of a polymer chain were independent of the chain chemistry. What is more, the governing equation turns out to be a random walk, or diffusive walk, in space. Indeed, the Schrödinger equation is itself a diffusion equation in imaginary time, t' = it.
Read more about this topic: Statistical Mechanics
Famous quotes containing the words random and/or walks:
“And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.”
—Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)
“And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)