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Re: Ions

William Beaty wrote:

But if your dV is small, you'll start seeing individual nuclei, and it
won't be neutral anymore. A really small dV would see virtual charges
even in a hard vacuum.

This is a problem throughout physics (and electronics), where the meaning
of "charge" varies nonsensically. .....

I have no problem with this. The dV is macroscopically small but still large
enough to contain many molecules, perhaps only a billion or so. Thus the
concept of smooth continuity is a good approximation, even for very small
dV.

Is there any nondestructive way of distinguishing a macroscopically neutral
plastic sphere (with a uniform cloud of -Q inside and a layer of +Q outside)
from a sphere which is microscopically neutral (each little dV is neutral
within the sphere)? Sorry for being unclear with this question before.

Ludwik Kowalski