Trade secrets... Neon lights, flicker bulbs and chaos
Secrets of the trade: Jonathan Hare shines a light on randomness
Randomness and chaos are at the heart of many transformations and interactions in chemistry. In Brownian motion, for example, large particles appear to move randomly throughout a solution as they collide with atoms and molecules.
As a chemical reaction progresses, randomness is usually averaged out and covered up, but we can catch a glimpse of this effect if we look closely at a particular type of light bulb.
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