SUBJECT: Charges Interacting Inside a Pentagon-shaped Box
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DESCRIPTION: In this simulation, ten positively charged particles interact in two dimensions inside a pentagon-shaped box via the classical Coulomb force and the quantum mechanical Pauli force. The mutual repulsion felt by the charges compels them to maximize the distance between each other. In this case, maximal separation puts them at the corners of the pentagon and at the halfway points along the sides that connect them.
VISUALIZATION: Start Simulation (you must have Java™ J2SE v1.4+ JRE installed. Mac OS X users need the Java3D update.)