Meanings
plural Brownian ratchets
- natural sciencesAn 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.
Synonyms: Feynman-Smoluchowski ratchet
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn 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.
Origin
In reference to Brownian motion.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Brownian ratchet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Brownian%20ratchet
“Brownian ratchet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Brownian%20ratchet. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Brownian ratchet,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Brownian%20ratchet.
Source: Brownian ratchet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.