At sea, on a windless day, in a strong swell, free floating ships will roll heavily. It was believed in the days of the clipper ships that under those circumstances two vessels at close distance will attract each other. Do they? The ships are harmonic oscillators in a wave field and as such analogous to two atoms in the sea of vacuum fluctuations. These atoms do attract: the van der Waals force.
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© 1996 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1996
American Association of Physics Teachers
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