Sir Geoffrey Taylor has recently discussed the dispersion of a solute under the simultaneous action of molecular diffusion and variation of the velocity of the solvent. A new basis for his analysis is presented here which removes the restrictions imposed on some of the parameters at the expense of describing the distribution of solute in terms of its moments in the direction of flow. It is shown that the rate of growth of the variance is proportional to the sum of the molecular diffusion coefficient,
D
, and the Taylor diffusion coefficient
Ka
2
U
2
/
D
, where
U
is the mean velocity and
a
is a dimension characteristic of the cross-section of the tube. An expression for
k
is given in the most general case, and it is shown that a finite distribution of solute tends to become normally distributed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.