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EQUIPOTENTIALS

An equipotential is the geometric place of the points that are at a constant electrostatic potential. Field lines and equipotential help us to give a geometric description of the electric field. The direction of the field at each point is perpendicular to the equipotential surface that crosses through it. This program plots the equipotential lines for an arbitrary point charge configuration.

Instructions:

• Click inside the applet to get the value of the potential at that point; is observed down in the screen of the browser.

• You can see examples givjen in the pop up menu by clicking.

• Second list shows equipotentials and electric field lines built using complex functions that describe different physical situations.

• Option añ (add) Protones (protons) and Electrones (electrons) choosing directly the one you like..

• Button Borrar (erase) erases equipotential surfaces.

• Button Retirar (remove) removers charges and equipotentials.

• Button Graficar (graph) plots the equipotentials.

• Button Agregar (add) is used every time you want to add a charge. You can choose proton or electron, then you press button agregar (add) and makes a click at the point you want to put the charge.

• Boxes Inicial (initial), Delta and Número (number) are used to adjust the values of the equipotentials that you want to see. Inicial (initial) is a float point number that determines the smallest value of the potential to be plotted; to have an idea of the possible values click inside the applet. Delta is the difference in potentials for two consecutive equipotentials; it is also a float number. Número (number) is an integer that determines the number of equipotential surfaces to plot itmust be less than 30.

Then all you have to do is to put a charge distribution, adjust the parameters of the equipotentials and ask the applet to plot it.