Simple Harmonic Motion of an Electric Dipole

initial angle

10

time

6.284

length

1

field strength

1

dipole charge

1

mass

1

This Demonstration shows how an electric dipole undergoes simple harmonic motion in the presence of an electric field.

With the small angle approximation

θ≈sinθ

, the differential equation for this motion is

I

2

d

θ



2

t

=pEθ

, where

p

is the dipole moment—defined as the charge times the separation between the two point charges—and

E

is the magnitude of the electric field. Solving this equation gives the resulting motion.