Re: IONS in metals

[jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu (James Mclean)]

Ludwik Kowalski says:
> Bob Sciamanda wrote:
> >   I don't think the "ultimate" question is answerable within
> >   Maxwellian electrodynamics.  Recall Earnshaw's theorem.
> I am not sure but I think that Bob is referring  to a mathematical
> proof that "electric forces alone can not produce a confined stable
> configuration of charges". Can somebody quote the theoreme as
> it is actually stated?
(Based on the article I recently read in Physics Today about magnetic
levitation of diamagnetic objects - including small live animals! ....)

I think the idea is complete if you add 'clasical' to electric forces and
'static' to configuration of charges.  Quantum mechanics can throw in a
monkey wrench.  You could say that the electrons in atoms violate the
'static' requirement of the theorem, but I'm not sure how accurately that
describes how the theorem fails.

-- 
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc
UC San Diego, Chemistry