dipole
Sign in to savethumb|Field lines of a point dipole of any type, electric, magnetic, acoustic, etc.
Article
19 sectionsContents
- Classification
- Electric dipole
- Magnetic dipole
- Physical vs. ideal dipole
- 2nd term in multipole expansion
- Molecular electric dipoles
- Quantum-mechanical dipole operator
- Atomic dipoles
- Field of a static magnetic dipole
- Magnitude
- Vector form
- Magnetic vector potential
- Field from an electric dipole
- Torque on a dipole
- Dipole radiation
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
thumb|Field lines of a point dipole of any type, electric, magnetic, acoustic, etc.
In physics, a dipole () is an electromagnetic phenomenon which occurs in two ways: An electric dipole formed by the separation of the positive and negative electric charges (typically in atomic and molecular systems). Electric dipoles are typically represented by a pair of charges of equal but opposite electric charges separated by a small distance. A magnetic dipole represents a sufficiently small magnet such as those due to atoms, molecules, and electrons. Magnetic dipoles are typically modeled as a loop of constant current.