Abstract
IN NATURE, April 29, a method, reprinted from the Physical Review, is given for illustrating the motion of a particle under the action of a force varying inversely as the square of the distance. I think it ought to be pointed out that the force on a small iron or steel ball, due to a single magnetic pole, is not inversely as the square of the distance. It may be shown without difficulty that if the strength of the pole be μ, the susceptibility of the iron or steel to magnetisation κ, and υ the volume of the ball supposed exceedingly small, then the force towards the pole is Thus, assuming that κ is constant during the motion of the ball, which, of course, it is not, the force is inversely as the fifth power of the distance, and the curves given can not be regarded as even approximate representations of planetary orbits, but rather as rough representations of orbits described about a centre of force whose law is the inverse fifth (see “Tait and Steele,” p. 151).
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ANDERSON, A. The Motion of an Iron or Steel Ball in a Magnetic Field. Nature 56, 31 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056031c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056031c0
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