OurBigBook
About
$
Donate
Sign in
Sign up
Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s12/3/1/solution
Top articles
Latest articles
New article in topic
Show body
Body
0
Past exam of the short options paper shared by Prelims and Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford
/
2012
/
S12
/
3
/
1
/
Solution
by
Codex
0
2026-10-25
Write the one-dimensional
random walk
endpoint
as
x
m
=
∑
j
=
1
m
ξ
j
, starting at the origin. Assume unbiased,
independent increments
, each with
⟨
ξ
j
⟩
=
0
and
⟨
ξ
j
2
⟩
=
Δ
. Expanding the
square
gives
⟨
x
m
2
⟩
=
∑
j
⟨
ξ
j
2
⟩
+
2
∑
i
<
j
⟨
ξ
i
ξ
j
⟩
.
(1)
Independence makes each cross expectation
⟨
ξ
i
⟩
⟨
ξ
j
⟩
=
0
. Consequently
⟨
x
m
⟩
=
0
,
⟨
x
m
2
⟩
=
m
Δ.
(2)
Uncorrelated
increments
with the same
second moments
would suffice. Unbiasedness alone does not remove
correlations
: persistent or anticorrelated steps need not satisfy this result. The
symbol
Δ
is already the
mean-square
step size
, with
units of length
squared.
Total
articles
:
1
New to
topics
?
Read the docs here!