Undergrad What are the stable orientations for a dipole in an external e-field

Click For Summary
Stable orientations for a dipole in an external electric field occur when the dipole aligns with the field direction, minimizing potential energy. If the dipole is slightly perturbed from this alignment, it experiences a restoring torque that returns it to the stable position. The stability of these orientations depends on whether the external field is uniform; in a uniform field, the dipole will return to equilibrium, while in a non-uniform field, it may move toward regions of higher field strength. The discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding the dipole's behavior in varying field conditions. Overall, the dipole's orientation and response to perturbations are crucial for applications in electrostatics.
athenad07
Messages
6
Reaction score
3
What are the stable orientation(s) for a dipole in an external electric field? What happens if the dipole is slightly perturbed from these orientations?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Is the external field uniform?
 

Thread 'Traveling through space at zero km/s'

In sci-fi when an author is talking about space travellers or describing the movement of galaxies they will say something like “movement in space only means anything in relation to another object”. Examples of this would be, a space ship moving away from earth at 100 km/s, or 2 galaxies moving towards each other at one light year per century. I think it would make it easier to describe movement in space if we had three axis that we all agree on and we used 0 km/s relative to the speed of...
View full post »

Similar threads

High School Direction of Electric Field & Field Due to a Dipole
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K
Insights How to Model a Magnet Falling Through a Conducting Pipe
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
3K
High School Electric field on the equatorial line of a dipole
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
1K
High School Why Does My Toaster Hum Due to AC-Induced Magnetic Forces?
  • · Replies 22 ·
Replies
22
Views
2K
Undergrad Shielding behavior of a steel cuboid in a DC magnetic field
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
785
External forces required to move an electric dipole quasi-statically
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
1K
Graduate Finding potential of a dipole outside of a sphere
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Graduate Mass measurement in a Penning trap
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
887
Hertzian Dipole and finding its orientation
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K
Image Theory for an Electric Dipole
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
2K