Windows Sofware To Graph Electric Field Lines ?

[iamhumble]

Windows Sofware To Graph Electric Field Lines ??

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know of any Windows software out there that will graph electric field lines? I recently did a physics lab where I determine point charges of some "x-rays" and from the data I gathered I need to graph the electric field lines.

If there is no software available does anyone know how to do this with Excel or any other type of software?

Any assistance is appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[berkeman]

Mathematica will work. There is an inexpensive student edition available as well. There is a learning curve, though.

 

[iamhumble]

Berkeman,

Thanks.

I will dload the trail version and try to figure it out. I need to turn in my lab in tomorrow.

 

[robphy]

What kind of data did you collect? (I'd like to know.)

The coordinates of a point in the plane (or in space) together with (say) a value and direction of maximum potential difference to a nearby point at fixed separation? How many data points did you collect?

If you just collected a handful of data points, it's going to be hard to draw a nice diagram of the field lines... at best, you could get a few electric field vectors.

If your data is comparable to the above, you could quickly (and cheaply!) write a program using http://vpython.org/ using the http://vpython.org/webdoc/visual/arrow.html.

 

[iamhumble]

Here is example of the data I collected.

In the attached ZIP file there is an excel file ( let me know you can't read the excel file ) where it list some data points.

Any blank cells represent a null point of where a design was.

In the experiment, we used a voltmeter to determine the volt charge of each point charge on a xray like sheet. Each xray like sheet had a design on it.