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spaghetti3451
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How can you use dimensional analysis to estimate the force between two plates, as a function of the area of the plates and their separation?
Vanadium 50 said:First, is this homework?
Vanadium 50 said:Second, dimensional analysis does not mean "make up some numbers and see what happens". It means to ask yourself questions like "if I double the distance between the plates, what happens to the force?". What you wrote down, for example, says the force is independent of distance between the plates. Does that seem reasonable to you?
failexam said:Well, the force is independent of the separation of the plates in my formula.
Fightfish said:The problem is that there may be dimensionful constants, such as ##\hbar## and ##c## involved. You realize that your analysis neglects the presence of the ##\mathrm{kg\, s}^{-2}## terms in the dimensions of the force - you can't just extract the length dimension and make a claim based on that alone (because other physical quantities, apart from the constants, can also be 'coupled' to the length dimension).
Of course it doesn't; it also depends on the separation of the plates and the area of the plates.failexam said:But the Casimir force cannot only depend on ##\hbar## and ##c##.
As a first guess (which turns out to be correct), we wouldn't naturally include it. At the end of the day, dimensional analysis is not an exact science - and we can only guess based on the supposed physics involved in the situation. In this case, the Casimir effect is thought to be due to the zero-point energy / (electromagnetic) vacuum fluctuations, and so it seems natural to include ##\hbar## and ##c##.failexam said:Do you suppose that Newton's gravitational constant ##G## may also be involved?
Fightfish said:Of course it doesn't; it also depends on the separation of the plates and the area of the plates.
Fightfish said:No, there is no reason to separate out that particular part of the dimension of the force. (Besides if you tried that, you'll find that it's impossible) Just use the dimensional analysis relation you did earlier but including all four quantities this time: ##[F] = [\hbar]^{\alpha} [c]^{\beta} [A]^{\gamma} [L]^{\delta}##. We intuitively expect the force to scale linearly with the surface area of the plate, so we can further take ##\gamma = 1## to simplify the situation.
I wouldn't think this is a particularly important consideration - after all, certain quantities carry several dimensions, so we don't necessarily need three equations.failexam said:But then, are you by any chance using the fact that there are three units - mass, length, time - in force and so we need three equations for the separate units of mass, length and time.
Mainly this I would say. As with all guesswork formulations, if somehow we cannot get a reasonable solution for the powers, then its back to the drawing board to re-examine what other quantities we might have missed out and then include them in and repeat the analysis.failexam said:Now, this is a quantum-field-theoretic effect so that ##\hbar## and ##c## are natural choices to consider and then ##L## is something that we just intuitively expect the force to depend on.
Fightfish said:I wouldn't think this is a particularly important consideration - after all, certain quantities carry several dimensions, so we don't necessarily need three equations.
Nope, you left out the surface area ##A## of the plate, and also the result of the dimensional analysis should be left in terms of quantities, not expressed as numerical values or units.failexam said:So, I get
##\displaystyle{F \sim \frac{\hbar c}{L^{2}} \sim \frac{\text{197 eV nm}}{L^{2}}}##.
(I used ##\hbar##, ##c## and ##L## for the dimensional analysis.)
Does this look good?
Fightfish said:Nope, you left out the surface area ##A## of the plate, and also the result of the dimensional analysis should be left in terms of quantities, not expressed as numerical values or units.
Yup, and we should expect that this scales linearly if the force is homogeneous across the plate.failexam said:Right, it makes sense that the force ##F## should scale as the area ##A## between the plates since the increasing the area increases the area for vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field to occur.
Well, since you're taking a QFT course (I presume), it's best to be careful when talking about virtual particles haha. But yes, intuitively, the force should fall off with distance - and relatively quickly as well. You realize that this doesn't necessarily have to be a power law; it could very well be an exponential decay, but that will not be possible to obtain via dimensional analysis. In this case though, the proper calculations do indeed produce a result that agrees with that obtained via dimensional analysis, so all is nice and good.failexam said:Also, the force ##F## should scale as some inverse power of the separation ##L## between the plates since increasing the separation increases the distance that the virtual photons have to propagate to interact with each other.
Fightfish said:Yup, and we should expect that this scales linearly if the force is homogeneous across the plate.
Well, since you're taking a QFT course (I presume), it's best to be careful when talking about virtual particles haha. But yes, intuitively, the force should fall off with distance - and relatively quickly as well. You realize that this doesn't necessarily have to be a power law; it could very well be an exponential decay, but that will not be possible to obtain via dimensional analysis. In this case though, the proper calculations do indeed produce a result that agrees with that obtained via dimensional analysis, so all is nice and good.
Fightfish said:Hmm...I'm not sure about that though - because our dimensional analysis approach completely leaves out any numerical factors or dimensionless constants, and these could affect the order of magnitude of the estimate significantly.
The Casimir effect is a physical phenomenon in which two uncharged metal plates placed in close proximity experience an attractive force due to quantum fluctuations in the vacuum between them. This effect was first predicted by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir in 1948.
The Casimir effect is caused by the presence of virtual particles in the vacuum. These particles constantly pop in and out of existence, and when two metal plates are placed close together, the wavelengths of these particles are limited, creating a difference in pressure between the inside and outside of the plates, resulting in an attractive force.
Dimensional analysis is a mathematical technique used in physics to check the consistency of equations and to derive relationships between different physical quantities. It involves analyzing the dimensions (such as length, mass, and time) of the variables in an equation to ensure that they are consistent on both sides.
Dimensional analysis is used in the study of the Casimir effect to understand the relationship between the distance between the plates and the strength of the attractive force. By analyzing the dimensions of the variables involved, scientists can derive a dimensionless quantity known as the Casimir force per unit area, which can then be used to make predictions about the effect.
The Casimir effect has potential applications in nanotechnology, such as in the development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). It can also be used to improve the precision of atomic force microscopy and to create new types of sensors. Additionally, the study of the Casimir effect has contributed to our understanding of quantum mechanics and the nature of vacuum fluctuations.