Guillem_dlc said:
@Guillem_dlc -- Have a look at the Wikipedia article on electric dipoles linked to by @BvU and let us know if you have any more questions. In the future, it helps if you can provide links to your reading about your question. That will either answer your question outright, or at least it will show us where your confusion is coming from. Thanks.BvU said:
Yes, they are in the direction of the force on a positive test particle.Guillem_dlc said:
So why are they upside down in a dipole?berkeman said:
Who is upside down? Put a positive test particle in that dipole E-field, and which way will it go?Guillem_dlc said:
Towards the negative. Wait, I think I got it!berkeman said:
No, I do not understand...Guillem_dlc said:
The E-field (and force) vector arrows in the drawing point from the + charge to the - charge, so a positive test charge placed in that field will be repelled by the + charge and attracted to the - charge.Guillem_dlc said:
I found this:berkeman said:
That is the Dipole Moment Vector, not the Electric Field Vector. I see now where your confusion came from.Guillem_dlc said:
Clear! And is it hard to know why it has that sense?berkeman said:
An electric dipole is a pair of equal and opposite charges separated by a small distance. This creates a dipole moment, which is a measure of the strength and direction of the dipole.
Electric dipoles are conventionally represented by an arrow pointing from the negative charge to the positive charge. The length of the arrow represents the magnitude of the dipole moment, and the direction of the arrow represents the direction of the dipole moment.
Field lines are imaginary lines that represent the direction of the electric field. For electric dipoles, the field lines start at the positive charge and end at the negative charge.
The closer the field lines are together, the stronger the electric field is at that point. For electric dipoles, the field lines are closer together near the charges and farther apart in between the charges.
Yes, electric dipoles can exist in non-uniform electric fields. In this case, the dipole moment will align with the direction of the electric field, but the strength of the electric field will vary at different points along the dipole.