Distribution of charges on conductors and Thomson´s theorem

Author

Sancho, M. ; Sebastian, J.L. ; Giner, V.

Author_Institution

Dept. de Fisica Aplicada III, Univ. Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Volume

10

Issue

1

fYear

2001

fDate

2/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

26

Lastpage

30

Abstract

A simple numerical method of multidimensional minimisation is applied in order to find the equilibrium configuration of N point charges confined to a given volume or surface. The method is applied to different geometric forms with both Coulomb and nonharmonic interacting potentials. The technique presented in this paper is very useful from a didactic point of view, as it allows the approximate configuration of charges on conductors to be visualised and stresses the importance of the inverse square law for the charge distribution. For this purpose, different three-dimensional and two-dimensional examples are presented

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; conductors (electric); electric charge; minimisation; Coulomb potentials; Monte Carlo Metropolis simulation; N point charges; Thomson´s theorem; charge distribution; conductor charge distribution; equilibrium configuration; geometric forms; inverse square law; multidimensional minimisation; nonharmonic interacting potentials; three-dimensional examples; two-dimensional examples;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering Science and Education Journal

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0963-7346

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/esej:20010104

Filename

905715