We all know that things at the quantum level behave very strangely, yet they still manage to keep these funny organisms (namely Homo sapiens) captivated by their wonders.So here I am (back after a long hibernation) inspired by this cool Casimir effect.
Let's start with a classic analogy to explain this wierd phenomenon. In mid sixteenth century a sailor wrote a book - 'sailing for dummies' (of course that's not the name of the book). One of the salient phenomenon mentioned in the book was that in a rough sea two boats at rest tend to come closer to each other 'due to some mysterious force', but it was later explained that it was all because of the pattern of waves formed between the two boats.
It is observed that when a single boat is sailing in a rough sea it is equally likely to go left as well as right but due to random motion of the waves it just bobbles and stays in its position (unless the waves are moving in a particular direction in a uniform way) but when a second boat sails quite close to our first boat a limited number of waves can come from one side as compared to the other this is because the crests and troughs of these the waves will be of the form of an integer ( there won't be any 1/2 or 6/7 crests or troughs) i.e. Waves with longer wavelength won't be able to fit in the gap which in turn limits the number of waves formed between the two boats and hence pushes the boats towards each other because of the greater number of waves coming from the region outside the separation between the two boats.Similarly when two mirrors (or metal plates) are kept a few nanometers apart in vacuum the tend to stick to each other. Keep in mind that vacuum is not absolutely empty there are Electromagnetic waves(EM), disturbances in various fields (virtual particles) penetrating through that space. So now when the two mirrors are so close to each other there are only a limited number of waves penetrating the space between the two mirrors due to same reason as in the example of boats, i.e. the waves with larger wavelength won't even fit in the gap. hence due to biased direction of waves the two plates tend to come closer to each other.
Though this an interesting phenomenon it creates a lot of problems for nanotech. engineers. For example the nano scale electrical switches are so close together that they tend to remain in contact with each other that means they always stay in an on position (which of course is not the function of switches).
Stay tuned for more interesting stuff next week.
Credits: A friend of mine (Ishaan Joshi) brought this topic to my attention which intugued me.
Let's start with a classic analogy to explain this wierd phenomenon. In mid sixteenth century a sailor wrote a book - 'sailing for dummies' (of course that's not the name of the book). One of the salient phenomenon mentioned in the book was that in a rough sea two boats at rest tend to come closer to each other 'due to some mysterious force', but it was later explained that it was all because of the pattern of waves formed between the two boats.
It is observed that when a single boat is sailing in a rough sea it is equally likely to go left as well as right but due to random motion of the waves it just bobbles and stays in its position (unless the waves are moving in a particular direction in a uniform way) but when a second boat sails quite close to our first boat a limited number of waves can come from one side as compared to the other this is because the crests and troughs of these the waves will be of the form of an integer ( there won't be any 1/2 or 6/7 crests or troughs) i.e. Waves with longer wavelength won't be able to fit in the gap which in turn limits the number of waves formed between the two boats and hence pushes the boats towards each other because of the greater number of waves coming from the region outside the separation between the two boats.Similarly when two mirrors (or metal plates) are kept a few nanometers apart in vacuum the tend to stick to each other. Keep in mind that vacuum is not absolutely empty there are Electromagnetic waves(EM), disturbances in various fields (virtual particles) penetrating through that space. So now when the two mirrors are so close to each other there are only a limited number of waves penetrating the space between the two mirrors due to same reason as in the example of boats, i.e. the waves with larger wavelength won't even fit in the gap. hence due to biased direction of waves the two plates tend to come closer to each other.Though this an interesting phenomenon it creates a lot of problems for nanotech. engineers. For example the nano scale electrical switches are so close together that they tend to remain in contact with each other that means they always stay in an on position (which of course is not the function of switches).Stay tuned for more interesting stuff next week.
Credits: A friend of mine (Ishaan Joshi) brought this topic to my attention which intugued me.
I could have read this much from Wikipedia or YouTube. Tell something new
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