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Re: Saturday Morning Puzzle, Part 2



On Sat, 6 Oct 2001, brian whatcott wrote:

Consider a vanishingly thin lamina of the kind beloved by space time
enthusiasts, opposed by another similar lamina, both having the same volume
and density as the spheres which Bernard considered, and separated by a gap
of similar size as the laminate thickness.

Is the attractive force stronger, or the same, as two spheres seperated by
a similar distance?

With the following assumptions:

1. The lamina are disks
2. "Vanishingly thin" => thickness of disk << radius of disk
3. "two spheres [separated] by a similar distance"
=> the two spheres are essentially in contact.

The answer is down there
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(keep going!)
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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.

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