Torque due to electric dipole moment in uniform electric field¶
An object with an electric dipole moment is subject to a torque when placed in an external electric field. The torque tends to align the dipole with the field.
Notes:
The dipole receives no overall net force due to the fact that the forces exerted on the point charges constituting the dipole cancel each other.
Conditions:
The electric field must be spatially uniform across the small region occupied by the dipole.
Links:
- Symbol:
tau- Latex:
\({\vec \tau}\)
- Dimension:
force*length
- electric_dipole_moment¶
Vector of the
electric_dipole_momentof the object.
- Symbol:
p- Latex:
\({\vec p}\)
- Dimension:
charge*length
- electric_field¶
Vector of the uniform electric field. See
electric_field_strength.
- Symbol:
E- Latex:
\({\vec E}\)
- Dimension:
voltage/length
- law¶
tau = cross(p, E)- Latex:
- \[{\vec \tau} = \left[ {\vec p}, {\vec E} \right]\]