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Re: arbitrary choice of zero of potential



From: Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>

"John S. Denker" wrote:

Neither blunder nor paradox. It's just another example
of gauge invariance.

But to an unsophisticated teacher the following two
statements do seem to be contradictory.

"All potential energy must go to zero when the interacting
particles are infinitely far apart."

" PEgrv = 0 can be chosen arbitrarily at any distance
between a particle and the center of our planet."

Why is this not a paradox? If PEgrv MUST be zero at
infinity then we should never allow it to be zero at other
places, for example, at the sea level or at Mount Everest.
Ludwik Kowalski

I contend that there is no paradox, because one statement is "more correct" than the other. Your final sentence is absolutely correct!


Cheers,
Joe

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