>Me:
>There is no experimental evidence that the inverse square law of gravitation
>holds even at distances as large as a quarter of an inch, and who knows what
>happens when things become a billion times smaller still.
>Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com>
> Uh, this is incorrect. Experiments into the Casimir Effect do in fact
> confirm the inverse square law down to tiny fractions of an inch.
No, I was correct. The Casimir Effect has absolutely nothing to do with the law
of gravitation and according to recent string theory ideas gravitation is the only
force that expands over all the dimensions of space not just the 3 we as familiar with.
It's also the force that makes Black Holes. The Casmir effect is due to a quantum
mechanical consequence of the electromagnetic force, if you place two flat mirrors
close together then there can not be virtual photons of every wavelength in the vacuum
between the mirrors as there is outside, because some will interfere destructively.
There are more virtual particles in the vacuum outside the mirrors pushing them
together than between the mirrors pushing them apart.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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