. Electricity and matter . Fig. 2. of tension and will therefore tend to straightenitself, how is it prevented from doing this andmaintained in equilibrium in a curved position?AVe can see tlie reason for this if we rememberthat the lines of force repel each other and thatthe lines are more concentrated in the region be-tween jPQ and AjB than on the other side off*Q, thus the repulsion of the lines inside JPQwill be greater than tlie repulsion of those out-side and the line PQ will be bent outwards. 12 ELECTRICITY AND IVIATTER Let US now pass from tlie case of two oppositelyelectrified bodies
. Electricity and matter . Fig. 2. of tension and will therefore tend to straightenitself, how is it prevented from doing this andmaintained in equilibrium in a curved position?AVe can see tlie reason for this if we rememberthat the lines of force repel each other and thatthe lines are more concentrated in the region be-tween jPQ and AjB than on the other side off*Q, thus the repulsion of the lines inside JPQwill be greater than tlie repulsion of those out-side and the line PQ will be bent outwards. 12 ELECTRICITY AND IVIATTER Let US now pass from tlie case of two oppositelyelectrified bodies to that of two similarly elec-trified ones, the lines of force for which are shownin Fig. 3. Let us suppose A and £ are positivelyelectrified; since the lines of force start frompositively and end on negatively electrified bodies,the lines starting from A and J5 will travel awayto join some body or bodies possessing the. Fig. 3. negative charges corresponding to the positiveones on A and £; let us suppose that thesecharges are a considerable distance away, so thatthe lines of force from A would, if £ were notpresent, spread out, in the part of the field underconsideration, uniformly in all directions. Considernow the effect of making the system of lines offorce attached to A and £ approach each other; LINES OF FORCE 13 since tliese lines repel each other the lines of forceon the side of A nearest £ will be pushed to theopposite side of A, so that the lines of force willnow be densest on the far side of A; thus thepulls exerted on A in the rear by the lines offorce will be greater than those in the front andthe result will be that A will be pulled awayfrom £. We notice that the mechanism produc-ing this repulsion is of exactly the same type asthat which produced the attraction in the pre-vious case, and we may if we please regard therej^ulsion between A and £ as due to the attrac-tions on A and Â
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectelectri, bookyear1904
