Re: Saturday Morning Puzzle, Part 2

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

On Sat, 6 Oct 2001, John S. Denker wrote:

> > The force is weaker, LOTS weaker, by as large a factor as you'd
> > like because it is directly proportional to the thickness of the
> > disk.
>
> I disagree!

Hmm.  I'd be interested in knowing how a distribution that places
most of the mass in one object at arbitrarily large distances (not
to mention in directions that cover a solid angle of nearly 2*pi)
from any given portion of the other object could end up giving a
larger net force than a distribution that keeps all of the mass
within a small distance *and* a smaller range of solid angles.

John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm