4 ms·
That is not true. Casimir force is due to EM interaction between the objects (retarded London forces). EM field is not "nothing", it is a thing that is everywhe
by effie 6y ago
That is not true. Casimir force is due to EM interaction between the objects (retarded London forces). EM field is not "nothing", it is a thing that is everywhere and has properties.
- findalex 6y agoThanks for this. I was under the impression there was some difference between relativistic electron-electron dispersion and the Casimir force - after reading your comment I googled some recent papers and convinced myself. My first thought after knowing this was that maybe micro/nano-fabrication won't be as kneecapped by this force as I thought - as it is not an intrinsic/unavoidable property of the vacuum, but a tune-able property of the materials.
- bmitc 6y ago> That is not true ... EM field is not "nothing", it is a thing that is everywhere and has properties. I feel that slightly trivializes the unknowns of what fields actually are and is a bit pedantic in the context of the comment you replied to. If fields are not nothing, okay, point to one. Show me it. Yes, they are a thing in the sense that we can measure their effect on other things that we can see and point to, but I think it's a huge rabbit hole to try to answer just what fields are. In many respects, fields are just a mathematical model of effects we see.
- effie 6y agoYou are reading too much into my comment. I only asserted there is no need for "magical explanations". Of course fields are not a trivial idea.