Electrostatics MOC

Electric dipole moment

The electric dipole moment measures the separation of positive and negative charges within a system, determining the dipole term in the Multipole expansion of the electrostatic potential. In general, for a charge distribution localized to the electric dipole moment is given by

In the case of a point charge at position , we have . It is useful to introduce the concept of electric polarization density , so that the dipole moment due to a volume is given by

Analysis of the Electric potential of a polarized material motivates the surface and volume bound charge densities

See also

• See Perfect electric dipole

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