Rotational Brownian motion Rotational Brownian motion Rotational Brownian motion is the random change in the orientation of a polar molecule due to collisions with other molecules. It is an important element of theories of dielectric materials. The polarization of a dielectric material is a competition between torques due to the imposed electric field, which tend to align the molecules, and collisions, which tend to destroy the alignment. The theory of rotational Brownian motion allows one to calculate the net result of these two competing effects, and to predict how the permittivity of a dielectric material depends on the strength and frequency of the
Perpetual motion costs energy (requiring Maxwell's demon to perform more thermodynamic work to gauge the speed of the molecules than the amount of energy gained by the difference of temperature caused) or the unidirectionality is an illusion and occasional big violations make up for the frequent small non-violations (the Brownian ratchet will be subject to internal Brownian forces and therefore will sometimes turn the wrong way). Buoyancy is another frequently misunderstood phenomenon. Some proposed perpetual-motion machines miss the fact that to push a volume of air down in a fluid takes the same work as to raise a corresponding volume of fluid