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Re: superposition



JFDWG <jfdwg@acad1.alaska.edu> wrote:
Can anyone provide a way that I can justify superposition to
students? Usually we ask students to believe us that adding
electric field vectors from individual charges sum without
accounting for the interaction among the charges.

If your students are convinced that the electric *forces* exerted by two
charges on a test charge add in the same fashion as other forces, then
remind them that E is defined as force per unit test charge. The
superposition of E follows naturally.

--
Jon Bell <jtbell@presby.edu> Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA