In physics, the mean free path is the average distance travelled by a moving particle (such as an atom, a molecule, a photon) between successive impacts (collisions) which modify its direction or energy or other particle properties.
Read more about Mean Free Path: Derivation, Mean Free Path in Kinetic Theory, Mean Free Path in Radiography, Mean Free Path in Particle Physics, Mean Free Path in Nuclear Physics, Mean Free Path in Optics, Mean Free Path in Acoustics, Examples
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or path:
“If I had not come to America, where I felt free to formulate tentatively insights at which I had empathically arrived, I would have accomplished very little. I would never have begun to publish, to teach, to undertake research. Because if one does not find an assenting echo to one’s ideas, if one is passed over, as I was in Vienna, then one cannot create. To create, after all, is to believe that what one says will count.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)
“Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun looked over the mountain’s rim:
And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)