计算模拟3-field-line.pptVIP

* * STATIC CHARGES STATIC CHARGES Suppose we want to know the electric field E(r) at the point r due to N point charges q1, q2,…,qN at fixed positions r1, r2,…,rN . We know that E(r) satisfies a superposition principle and is given by where ri is the fixed location of the ith charge and K is a constant that depends on the choice of units. (1) STATIC CHARGES The usual way of visualizing the electric field is to draw electric field lines. The properties of these lines are as follows: 1. An electric field line is a directed line whose tangent at every position is parallel to the electric field at that position. STATIC CHARGES 2. The lines are smooth and continuous except at singularities such as point charges. (It makes no sense to talk about the electric field at a point charge.) 3. The density of lines at any point in space is proportional to the magnitude of the field at that point. This property implies that the total number of electric field lines from a point charge is proportional to the magnitude of that charge. STATIC CHARGES The drawing of field lines is art + science. Draw electric field lines in two dimensions. The algorithm: Begin at a point (x,y) near a charge and compute the components Ex and Ey of the electric field vector E using Eq.(1). Draw a small line segment of size tangent to E at that point. If , then . Otherwise . The components of the line segment are given by STATIC CHARGES 3. Repeat the process beginning at the new point . Continue until the field line approaches another charge. 4. Repeat steps (1)-(3) for equally spaced starting positions on a circle around the charge. and STATIC CHARGES 5. Repeat steps (1)-(4) for each charge of the same sign. Tricks: One may use a small value for if the field line is close to the charges or if the field magnitude is large. To speed up the program, a large value of may be used