Hi -
You've actually asked a very important - and, in some ways, very subtle -question. You can get a good, detailed explanation here:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/javaOO/classvars.html Bruce Eckel ("Thinking in
Java, 3rd Ed") explains it as follows:
"[A static method is] the equivalent of a global function (from C)...
It means that there is no 'this' (no per-instance data) for that particular method.
"You cannot call non-static methods from inside static methods (although the reverse is possible", and you can call a static method for the class itself, without any object. In fact, that's primarily what a static method is for."
Please take a look at the JavaDoc for "java.lang.Math". You'll notice that most of the math functions (abs(), sin(), cos(), etc etc) are all static functions. The reason is simple - you shouldn't have to create an entire object just to get the absolute value of a number. You just call ... a "static method": "abs (x)".
'Hope that helps .. Paul Santa Maria