Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Van der Waals Interactions

Van der Waals Interactions

Atoms and molecules interact with each other through intermolecular forces. These electrostatic forces arise from attractive or repulsive interactions between particles with permanent, partial, or temporary charges. The intermolecular forces between neutral atoms and molecules are ion–dipole, dipole–dipole, and dispersion forces, collectively known as van der Waals forces.

Types of Damping

Types of Damping

If the amount of damping in a system is gradually increased, the period and frequency start to become affected because damping opposes, and hence slows, the back and forth motion (the net force is smaller in both directions). If there is a very large amount of damping, the system does not even oscillate; instead, it slowly moves toward equilibrium. In brief, an overdamped system moves slowly towards equilibrium, whereas an underdamped system moves quickly to equilibrium but will oscillate about...

Damped Oscillations

Damped Oscillations

In the real world, oscillations seldom follow true simple harmonic motion. A system that continues its motion indefinitely without losing its amplitude is termed undamped. However, friction of some sort usually dampens the motion, so it fades away or needs more force to continue. For example, a guitar string stops oscillating a few seconds after being plucked. Similarly, one must continually push a swing to keep a child swinging on a playground.
Although friction and other non-conservative...

Diffusion

Diffusion

Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...

Diffusion

Diffusion

Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...

Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion

Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion

Although gaseous molecules travel at tremendous speeds (hundreds of meters per second), they collide with other gaseous molecules and travel in many different directions before reaching the desired target. At room temperature, a gaseous molecule will experience billions of collisions per second. The mean free path is the average distance a molecule travels between collisions. The mean free path increases with decreasing pressure; in general, the mean free path for a gaseous molecule will be...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponents of Deep Neural Networks.

Physical review letters·2024

Same author

Inertia Induces Strong Orientation Fluctuations of Nonspherical Atmospheric Particles.

Physical review letters·2024

Same author

Lagrangian Supersaturation Fluctuations at the Cloud Edge.

Physical review letters·2024

Same author

Alignment of Nonspherical Active Particles in Chaotic Flows.

Physical review letters·2019

Same author

Heavy particles in a persistent random flow with traps.

Physical review. E·2019

Same author

Distribution of label spacings for genome mapping in nanochannels.

Biomicrofluidics·2018

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids

Published on: December 4, 2017

Universal anomalous diffusion of weakly damped particles.

V Bezuglyy¹, M Wilkinson, B Mehlig

¹Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

|September 26, 2012

Summary

Anomalous diffusion is demonstrated in two particle motion models, exhibiting distinct scaling behaviors for position and momentum. Analytical determination of diffusion prefactors is achieved for these complex systems.

More Related Videos

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

Published on: May 1, 2018

Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgels

Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgels

Published on: September 8, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 18, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids

Published on: December 4, 2017

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

Published on: May 1, 2018

Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgels

Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgels

Published on: September 8, 2016

Area of Science:

Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Dynamical Systems

Background:

Anomalous diffusion describes particle movement deviating from standard Brownian motion.
Existing models often simplify forces or potentials, limiting applicability.
Understanding anomalous diffusion is crucial in fields like plasma physics and statistical mechanics.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate anomalous diffusion in generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck and Chandrasekhar-Rosenbluth models.
To analyze the scaling exponents for position and momentum diffusion.
To analytically derive the prefactors governing anomalous diffusion.

Main Methods:

Generalizing the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process to include position- and time-dependent random forces.
Extending the Chandrasekhar-Rosenbluth model to incorporate non-Coulombic potentials.
Deriving and solving the relevant diffusion equations to obtain scaling laws.

Main Results:

Both models exhibit anomalous diffusion for position (x) and momentum (p).
The scaling exponents were found to be (x^2) ~ t^2 and (p^2) ~ t^(2/5).
Analytical expressions for the diffusion prefactors (Cx and Cp) were successfully determined.

Conclusions:

The study confirms anomalous diffusion in two distinct, complex particle dynamics models.
The consistent scaling exponents across models highlight a fundamental aspect of anomalous diffusion.
Analytical solutions provide valuable insights into the quantitative behavior of these systems.