““Every object is embedded in the vacuum with which physics surrounds it. This means we don't observe the naked object-rather, we see it as the surrounding vacuum will dress it. Take, as an example, a positive electric charge, such as the proton's. Its presence modifies the surrounding vacuum. The effect appears because the fluctuating electrically charged particles and antiparticles in the vacuum move apart during their lifetime. The proton attracts negative charges and repels positive ones. On the average, the charge distribution will then look much as we illustrate in figure 76a. The field of what is now a polarized vacuum weakens the proton's electric field. Its true naked charge is larger than what it appears to be from some distance; the closer we get to the proton, the larger the charge we observe.””
