> But it's not at all obvious to me why the exponent a is 1 in nature
i think we can rule out any exponent just by dimensional analysis if you allow powers of q, then K has ambiguous units. Same reason you cant exponentiate unitful quantities
More specifically I think we can rule out even exponents by anti-symmetry of charge. That is q^2n = (-q)^2n which know is ruled out by experiment.
nh23423fefe · · focus · HN ↗
i think we can rule out any exponent just by dimensional analysis if you allow powers of q, then K has ambiguous units. Same reason you cant exponentiate unitful quantities
More specifically I think we can rule out even exponents by anti-symmetry of charge. That is q^2n = (-q)^2n which know is ruled out by experiment.
NooneAtAll3 · · focus · HN ↗
any dimensional analysis gets consumed by its unknown dimensionality
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> q^2n = (-q)^2n which know is ruled out by experiment.
doesn't mean equation can't be using absolute values ("number of electrons/protons") and just applying needed sign at the end
nh23423fefe · · focus · HN ↗
it can't use absolute values, you can't write that equation down