Suppose that a Brownian particle of mass M is surrounded by lighter particles of mass m which are traveling at a speed u. Then, reasons Smoluchowski, in any collision between a surrounding and Brownian particles, the velocity transmitted to the latter will be mu / M. This ratio is of the order of 10 cm/s. But we also have to take into consideration that in a gas there will be more than 10 collisions in a second, and even greater in a liquid where we expect that there will be 10 collision in one second. Some of these collisions will tend to accelerate the Brownian particle; others will tend to decelerate it. If there is a mean excess of one kind of collision or the other to be of the order of 10 to 10 collisions in one second, then velocity of the Brownian particle may be anywhere between 10–1000 cm/s. Thus, even though there are equal probabilities for forward and backward collisions there will be a net tendency to keep the Brownian particle in motion, just as the ballot theorem predicts.