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Classical Casimir effect for beads on a string

American Journal of Physics -- November 2001 -- Volume 69, Issue 11, pp. 1173-1176

Issue Date: November 2001
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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 01.50.-i
    Communication, education, history, and philosophy Educational aids
  • 45.05.+x
    Classical mechanics of discrete systems General theory of classical mechanics of discrete systems
  • 45.40.-f
    Classical mechanics of discrete systems Dynamics and kinematics of rigid bodies
  • YEAR: 2001

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:
0002-9505 (print)  
Publisher:
AIP is a member of CrossRef AAPT
David J. Griffiths and Elan Ho
Department of Physics, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
Two small beads are situated at distance a apart on an otherwise uniform taut string. A transverse wave of angular frequency omega is incident from one side, exerting longitudinal forces F1 and F2, respectively, on the beads. The effective "force of attraction" between the beads, FC = (F1–F2)/2, is the simplest classical analog to the Casimir effect. We find that FC can be positive or negative, depending on the values of a and omega. For a broad spectrum of incident "noise," however, the net "Casimir" force is zero. ©2001 American Association of Physics Teachers.
History: Received 29 May 2001; accepted 30 June 2001
Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1396620

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