156 



THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



pole stands for a corpuscle. The attractive force of the 

 sphere of positive electrification is provided for by a posi- 

 tive magnetic pole suspended at some distance above the 

 surface of the water. The forces acting on these little 

 floating magnets are thus similar to the forces acting on the 

 corpuscle in an atom. They are free to move, they repel 

 one another, and they are attracted by an exterior radial 

 force. The main difference between the corpuscles and the 

 magnets is that the corpuscles may move in any direction 

 in space, while the floating magnets may move only in the 

 plane of the surface of the water. The arrangements as- 

 sumed by the floating magnets as the number increases 

 from two up to nineteen are shown in Fig. 44. 



ceo 



Fig. 44. 



Here we see that three magnets form an equilateral 

 triangle, four a square, five a pentagon, but that when the 

 number exceeds five one or more of the magnets seek the 

 centre. Thus with six magnets we have one at the centre 

 and a pentagon of five surrounding it. With, say, ten 



