Inside Dielectrics: Feynman's Physics Explained
A material can polarize in two ways. In nonpolar molecules a field distorts the electron cloud to induce a dipole; in polar molecules like water, which already have a permanent dipole, the field tries to line them up against the scrambling of thermal motion. In a dense material the field on any one atom is not just the average field but is modified by its polarized neighbors — a 'local field' effect captured by the Clausius-Mossotti relation.
The big idea
Inside dense matter, every atom feels its neighbors' fields too.
Think about it
Why does heating a material make it harder to keep its molecular dipoles aligned in a field?
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