center of mass or charge

[AntonioLao]

Bohr used the concept of a center of mass (CM) to refine his quantum theory of angular momentum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_mass. However, there is no theory of a center of charge (electric or color) although both Newton’s law of universal gravity and Coulomb’s law of static electricity are based on the same inverse square law of force. Where and when a CM is considered, the reduced mass is less than the masses of a two-body system. The mystery remains how CM can be applied exactly to many-body systems of centers of both mass and charge (electric and color) without the use of perturbation theory both in classical mechanics and quantum mechanics as well as the limitation of potential theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_theory

[mkirkpatrick]

Prehaps the mystery will be solved here on Toequest?



regards michael.

[AntonioLao]

If we consider the possibility that CM only describes a mathematical idealization which has no physical relation to any property of direction.