From: g_d_pusch_remove_underscores@xnet.com   
      
   "moogle33"  writes:   
      
   > OK I may be a bit out of my league here so humour me OK.   
      
   Also rather off-topic for this NG.   
      
      
   > Are virtual particles effected by magnetism?   
      
   Only if they happen to be charged.   
      
      
   > What material was is used for the conducting plates when measuring the   
   > casimir effect   
      
   It doesn't matter. _Any_ two chunks of matter placed close together   
   will exert the so-called "casimir force" on each other. However,   
   contrary to what you may have read in bad SF novels or UFO magazines,   
   the "casimir effect" has _NOTHING WHATSOEVER_ to do with "vacuum" or   
   "zero-point energy," or any of that other nonsense. As was very clearly   
   shown by Julian Schwinger, the "casimir effect" is merely a macroscopic   
   analog of the van der Waals force between molecules. A macroscopic chunk   
   of matter has a fluctuating electric dipole moment due to the fluctuating   
   electric dipole moments of all the molecules it is made out of, and when   
   two macroscopic chunks of matter are placed close to each other, these   
   fluctuating dipole moments interact with each other, resulting in a small   
   time-averaged force between the two chunks, comparable in strength to the   
   van der Waals force. No "magic" is required --- and no so-called "vacuum"   
   or "zero-point energy" is required, either!   
      
      
   -- Gordon D. Pusch   
      
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