Inverse-square Law - Field Theory Interpretation

Field Theory Interpretation

For an irrotational vector field in three-dimensional space the inverse-square law corresponds to the property that the divergence is zero outside the source. This can be generalized to higher dimensions. Generally, for an irrotational vector field in n-dimensional Euclidean space, the intensity "I" of the vector field falls off with the distance "r" following the inverse (n − 1)th power law

,

given that the space outside the source is divergence free.

Read more about this topic:  Inverse-square Law

Famous quotes containing the words field and/or theory:

    Last night I watched my brothers play,
    The gentle and the reckless one,
    In a field two yards away.
    For half a century they were gone
    Beyond the other side of care
    To be among the peaceful dead.
    Edwin Muir (1887–1959)

    The theory [before the twentieth century] ... was that all the jobs in the world belonged by right to men, and that only men were by nature entitled to wages. If a woman earned money, outside domestic service, it was because some misfortune had deprived her of masculine protection.
    Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)