Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Aellyn on 03/02/2012 08:49:59

Title: Can Coulomb's Law be generalised?
Post by: Aellyn on 03/02/2012 08:49:59

Hello everyone,

I found this article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2011.10.008 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2011.10.008)), which is supposedly a generalisation of Coulomb's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb's_law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb's_law)).

It looks very interesting to me as the authors theoretically derive a formula for the force of electrostatic interaction between two electrically charged spheres with random radii and not just the interaction between two point charges as it is in Coulomb's law.

What do you think, is this going to change anything at all? Can it be even used successfully anywhere in the theory and/or application of physics?

Or is it just another theoretical bullshit without any further application?

Title: Re: Generalisation of Coulomb's law
Post by: Soul Surfer on 03/02/2012 18:55:26

The complexity of electrostatic charge on finite sized objets is encountered and has been studied very well for hundreds of years. They are often seen and described in Van der Waals forces.  These are the forces that hold atoms together to form chemical compounds, liquids and solids.  Look these up to learn more.

Title: Re: Can Coulomb's Law be generalised?
Post by: Aellyn on 04/02/2012 16:22:08

It is true that these have been studied for hundreds of years, but as far as I know this is the first time a generalised formula has been derived and as such, it seems like a big deal to me. Were you able to check the formulas and/or graphs they produced?

Title: Re: Can Coulomb's Law be generalised?
Post by: Soul Surfer on 05/02/2012 00:07:27

Obtaining a generalised solution for rigid spheres is progress in a very complicated situation however when you are dealing with atoms most are not spheres and not rigid.

Title: Re: Can Coulomb's Law be generalised?
Post by: Aellyn on 07/02/2012 18:56:59

Thanks a lot for your response, evidently you are quite familiar with the chemistry part of the problem, while I was more interested in the physics behind it. Could you recommend to me a good paper / book regarding the Van der Waals forces? You did light up some interest in me about them.

Title: Re: Can Coulomb's Law be generalised?
Post by: Soul Surfer on 07/02/2012 23:05:28

Look it up in wikipedia the article is quite good and there are lots of references.

Title: Re: Can Coulomb's Law be generalised?
Post by: Aellyn on 08/02/2012 10:26:36

Thanks a whole bunch!

P.S. <bit about circumventing paywall at the journal removed as it might be a copyright problem - imatfaal/mod>