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
Brownian motion square root of the total population. Suppose that a Brownian particle of mass "M" is surrounded by lighter particles of mass "m" which are traveling at a speed "u". Then, reasons Smoluchowski, in any collision between a surrounding and Brownian particles, the velocity transmitted to the latter will be "mu"/"M". This ratio is of the order of 10 cm/s. But we also have to take into consideration that in a gas there will be more than 10 collisions in a second, and even greater in a liquid where we expect that there will be 10 collision in one second. Some