Example

• What is the electric field at the origin for this collection of charges?

If a charge Q were placed at the origin, the force on this charge would be:

• The fields from the top right and bottom left cancel at the origin!!

• The total field is then just the field from the top left charge, which points away from the top left charge as shown.

• The components of the field at (0,0) are then:

if Qɘ, F=

Previous slide

Next slide

Back to first slide

View graphic version