Re: IONS/metals EUREKA

[Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@Mail.Montclair.edu>]

At the moment I have no time to think about the interesting
message that Bob posted this evening. The only immediate
comment is that if we accept the naive idea that a piece of metal
is an aggregate of positive and negative particles (electrically
interacting with each other in a vacuum) than a non-zero
field must exist in spaces between particles. It is the macroscopic
average field (of random distributions) that is zero in any given
region in which the number of particles is large.

Yes, I was thinking about the non-randomly oriented "induced
dipoles". I will think about them again later. A transition from
E=0 inside and E>0 outside must be gradual, over several atomic
layers. The intuition tells me that an acceptable explanation of
static equilibrium (for the excess charges) must somehow be
possible at the elementary level, at least in the qualitative form.

Ludwik Kowalski.

Bob Sciamanda wrote:

> You are speculating that this "induction" effect (that's what Jeans is
> referring to) will overpower the other effects and hold the excess charge
> on the surface.  No need to speculate.  ...