Electric charge is present around us and there are many different examples to prove this phenomenon. Have you ever tried rubbing a comb-over a towel and brought it close to your hair? You will see that some of your hair tend to get attracted to the comb. This is basically due to the generation of Electric Charge. In this section, we will try to decode the behavior of opposite charges when kept at a distance. This is the concept of the Electric Dipole which is a vital portion of electrostatics.
Introduction to Electric Dipole
Electric Dipole
An electric dipole is tagged as a pair of objects which possess equal & opposite charges, parted by a significantly small distance. Let us take two charges having equal magnitude ‘Q’, which are separated by the distance ‘D’.
Here we assume the first charge to be negative, while the second charge stays positive. You can call this particular combination as an electric dipole. Hence, we can state that an electric dipole is formed due to the grouping of equal & opposite charges when separated by an assured distance.
Browse more Topics under Electric Charges And Fields
Conductors and Insulators
Electric Charge
Basic Properties of Electric Charge
Coulomb’s Law
Electric Field
Electric Field Lines
Gauss’s Law
Applications of Gauss’s Law
Electric Flux
Dipole in a Uniform External Field
What is the Dipole Moment?
It is basically the exact measure of the strength associated with an electric dipole. Based on scientific and mathematical conclusions, the dipole moment magnitude is the product of either of the charges and the separation distance (d) between them. Do remember that, the dipole moment is a vector measure whose direction runs from negative to a positive charge.
The formula for electric dipole moment for a pair of equal & opposite charges is p = qd, the magnitude of the charges multiplied by the distance between the two.