Abstract
THE mechanical Brownian movement of various systems has been very thoroughly investigated in the past, and corresponding detailed statistical analyses of the experimental records have been carried out in order to check the fundamental assumptions of the theory. Of particular interest is an investigation by E. Kappler1 on the Brownian movement of a torsion balance, using amplification by a beam of light to obtain direct photographic records. Experimental work on the analogous phenomenon in electrical circuits which, in certain limiting cases, manifests itself either as thermal fluctuation of current or as shot effect (in the jargon of electrical engineering usually referred to as noise) has, however, in the main been confined to observations of the magnitude of the fluctuations. A complete statistical theory, based on earlier work by Orastein2, Uhlenbeck3, and others, was recently developed by S. O. Rice4, on the assumption that the fluctuations of current in a circuit originate from completely uncorrelated random events. He derived expressions for the distribution of the variations of current in time in terms of the electrical characteristics of the circuit; from which, in particular, the magnitude of the fluctuations and their correlation over a finite time-interval can be obtained. We therefore considered it to be worth while to produce records of electrical fluctuations under different conditions in order to compare them with the theory and to find out whether the underlying general principles of the theory were justified.
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References
Kappler, E., Ann. Phys., 11, 233 (1931); 15, 545 (1932).
Ornstein, L. S., Proc. Roy. Acad. Sci., Amsterdam, 21, 96 (1919).
Uhlenbeck, G. E., and Ornstein, L. S., Phys. Rev., 36, 823 (1930).
Rice, S. O., Bell System Tech. J., 23, 282 (1944); 24, 46 (1945).
For example, Johnson, J. B., Phys. Rev., 26, 71 (1925).
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FÜRTH, R., MACDONALD, D. Statistical Analysis of Spontaneous Electrical Fluctuations. Nature 157, 807 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157807a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157807a0
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