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WHAT happens if you take two mirrors and arrange them so that they are facing each other in empty space? Your first reaction might be "nothing at all". In fact, both mirrors are mutually attracted to each other by the simple presence of the vacuum. This startling phenomenon was first predicted in 1948 by the Dutch theoretical physicist Hendrik Casimir while he was working at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven on – of all things – colloidal solutions (see box on page 30). The phenomenon is now dubbed the Casimir effect, while the force between the mirrors is known as the Casimir force.
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Astrid Lambrecht (2002) studied this question.
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