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Abstract
The dynamics of a liquid dielectric attracted by a vertical cylindrical capacitor
is studied. Contrary to what might be expected from the standard calculation of the
force exerted by the capacitor, the motion of the dielectric is different depending
on whether the charge or the voltage of the capacitor is held constant. The problem
turns out to be an unconventional example of dynamics of a system with variable mass,
whose velocity can, in certain circumstances, suffer abrupt changes. Under the hypothesis
that the voltage remains constant the motion is described in qualitative and quantitative
details, and a very brief qualitative discussion is made of the constant charge case.