Re: funny capacitor

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 01:43 PM 3/10/01 -0500, Bob Sciamanda wrote:
> Perhaps more to the point:
> Note that the only way to force V3 to always be zero, regardless of the Q
> values, is to let c=> infinity.

I have no idea what this means.

Until this instant, I was under the impression that every word of this
entire thread has been restricted to electrostatics... in which case c
doesn't appear in any of the equations.  So adjusting its value can't
possibly change any of the conclusions.

=======

Also a nit-pick:  constants of nature are not variables to be arbitrarily
adjusted.  A better way to proceed is to say that electrostatics involves
long time-scales tau and short length scales lambda, such that lambda/tau << c.

This is an important idea;  the only reason I call it a nit-pick is that
most people know how to translate from the sloppy c --> infinity language
to the proper lambda/tau << c language, so the potential for real confusion
is limited.

So to restate my puzzlement:  The whole thread has been assuming the
lambda/tau << c limit, so I cannot understand how making lambda smaller or
tau larger is going to change anything.