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LEVEL 1 - INTRODUCTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

V. Adrian Parsegian
Affiliation:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
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Summary

Unlike deceptively simple electrostatic Coulombic interactions, van der Waals forces can appear complicated. Why? Electrostatic forces depend on only the response to constant electric fields from effectively stationary charges. Electrodynamic van der Waals forces depend on all the possible electromagnetic fields that come out of all possible modes of charges in motion. After learning the language of these fields and motions, seeing how measurements of reflection and absorption turn into calculable forces, and understanding how the electromagnetic wave equations lead us to formulate interactions for a huge variety of materials in variously shaped bodies, we are liberated. What we knew before about charge–charge interactions seems so confining once we can move into a newly accessible area.

The van der Waals interaction depends on the dielectric properties of the materials that interact and that of the medium that separates them.

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Van der Waals Forces
A Handbook for Biologists, Chemists, Engineers, and Physicists
, pp. 39 - 40
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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  • INTRODUCTION
  • V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
  • Book: Van der Waals Forces
  • Online publication: 08 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614606.007
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  • INTRODUCTION
  • V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
  • Book: Van der Waals Forces
  • Online publication: 08 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614606.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • INTRODUCTION
  • V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
  • Book: Van der Waals Forces
  • Online publication: 08 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614606.007
Available formats
×