The Brownian ratchet is an apparent perpetual motion machine that appears to violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but was later debunked upon more detailed analysis by Richard Feynman and other physicists. The difference between real Brownian motors and fictional Brownian ratchets is that only in Brownian motors is there an input of energy in order to provide the necessary force to hold the motor in place to counteract the thermal noise that try to move the motor in the opposite direction.