Ponderomotive Force - What is it?

[mpolo]

Sometimes as I am reading about the history of physics I run across this phrase.
Ponderomotive force. I have tried looking it up several times but can never find an answer that explains what is meant by this phrase. Can someone tell me in laymens terms what is a Ponderomotive Force? Sometimes people like Einstein, Lorentz and Maxwell use this phrase. Give me an example of what this force is and how it works. I am looking for the mechanical details of what it is.
Thanks for your help.

 

[A.T.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponderomotive_force

 

[mpolo]

Yes I have that article several times. I guess my question is, are they saying that this ponderomotive force is the cause of the motion of a particle?

 

[A.T.]

Yes I have that article several times.

Did you skip the introduction?

 

[mpolo]

No, I did not skip the beginning of the article. Its a small article and I read the beginning paragraphs several times. There is no Introduction it starts with the Derivation. I guess that is what you are referring to as the Introduction. I am looking for more of a metaphysical description. Maybe that article is as good as it gets.

 

[anorlunda]

No, I did not skip the beginning of the article. Its a small article and I read the beginning paragraphs several times. There is no Introduction it starts with the Derivation. I guess that is what you are referring to as the Introduction. I am looking for more of a metaphysical description. Maybe that article is as good as it gets.

PF is not the place to go for metaphysics.

 

[Drakkith]

Sometimes as I am reading about the history of physics I run across this phrase.
Ponderomotive force. I have tried looking it up several times but can never find an answer that explains what is meant by this phrase. Can someone tell me in laymens terms what is a Ponderomotive Force? Sometimes people like Einstein, Lorentz and Maxwell use this phrase. Give me an example of what this force is and how it works. I am looking for the mechanical details of what it is.
Thanks for your help.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking for. The wiki article linked by A.T. is a good description of the process. It's the average force felt by a particle in an oscillating, non-homogeneous electromagnetic field and the mechanical details are given in the article.

What's your physics background? Have you taken any E&M classes yet?

I am looking for more of a metaphysical description.

Metaphysics is philosophy, not science. Are you sure that's the word you meant to use?

 

[mpolo]

Yes, I meant to use that word. I am studying the nature of things, philosophically speaking. Okay and your brief description is good enough to confirm what I read and I now see the meaning of the phrase. It does not mean what I thought it meant. You summed it up better than the article by saying that its the average force felt by a particle in an oscillating field. It is a simple, clear definition that I was looking for. Thanks for the help.

Actually with your simple straight forward definition in hand I went back and reread the article and the entire wiki article makes much more sense. I was able to get a lot more understanding of the meaning of Ponderomotive Force. Now when I read other articles that mention it, it won't be a mystery to me what they are talking about.

 

[Drakkith]

I can understand. I think the key areas of the article were:

In physics, a ponderomotive force is a nonlinear force that a charged particle experiences in an inhomogeneous oscillating electromagnetic field.

and

Thus, averaged over a full cycle there is a net force that drives the charge toward the weak field area.

It would be easy to get confused if you missed this last part or didn't make the connection, which is easy to do if you're approaching a new topic for the first time.