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note / modern mathematics

Session 06 — From Random Walk to Brownian Motion

From Random Walk to Brownian Motion

Central Question

How can a jagged discrete path approach a continuous random process?

Why This Matters

A scaling limit connects discrete randomness to a continuous object while revealing that convergence of individual observations is not enough to control paths.

Learning Prompt

Motivate Brownian motion as the scaling limit of a symmetric random walk. Make me determine how space and time must be rescaled to keep the variance meaningful, and explain why interpolation is needed when comparing paths. Build the roles of Gaussian increments, independence, stationary increments and continuity. Distinguish convergence at fixed times from convergence of random paths, giving a conceptual account of what a functional limit theorem adds. Explore why continuity need not imply differentiability, and keep separate the construction of Brownian motion, its defining properties and the limiting argument.

Ideas

Examples

Questions

Connections

One Thing That Surprised Me

Further Rabbit Holes