Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-soft-matter-and-biological-physics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-1/1/solution
Past exam of the soft matter and biological physics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 1 1 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
velocity , length and diffusivity have dimensions , , and . Their dimensionless Péclet number isdiffusion dominates for , advection for . At fixed , the crossover length is ; neglecting advection requires .
TODO: user-deferred organism-specific swimming-speed and detection-scale estimates. No biological numerical substitution is made.
For the generic equilibrium transport derivation, let an external potential give force and drift . Boltzmann equilibrium has , hence . Substituting in the zero-current condition givesThe Stokes–Einstein relation in the final equality is for an isolated no-slip sphere in a Newtonian liquid at low Reynolds number. Zero flux alone is insufficient: the equilibrium distribution and mechanical mobility law are also needed.
TODO: user-deferred organism-specific absorbing-surface calculation and its biological flux interpretation.
TODO: user-deferred receptor-number, receptor-density and receptor-competition calculations. These continuations have not been solved.
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