Random walks

Introduction

Random walks are used to describe a variety of physical phenomena, ranging from diffusion (think of an ink drop spreading in water) to the conformation of polymers consisting of long molecular chains.

Four simulations are available.

• Random walk in one dimension (fixed step length).
• Random walk in one dimension (continuous step length).
• Random walk in two dimensions (fixed step length).
• Self-avoiding walk in two dimensions. The walker steps at random, but cannot return to a site that has already been visited.

Updated 12 May 2008.