Re: point particles

[Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskil@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

Yes, but the claim was made that the
dipole moment of a point charge (NOT
Q=0) is an intrinsic property of the object
in which that point charge is located. By
 "intrinsic" I mean "not dependent of the
location of the reference point. How this
can such claim be justified?
Ludwik Kowalski



On Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Bob Sciamanda wrote:

> Huh? The center of mass location has nothing to do with the electrical
> dipole moment,  the dipole moment is  calculable from only a knowledge
> of
> the charge distribution.
>
> In answer to another, related query, the dipole moment of a charge
> distribution is in general dependent upon one's choice of origin for
> the
> calculation.  But if the monopole moment is zero (overall electrical
> neutrality) the dipole moment is independent of the choice of origin.
>
> Bob Sciamanda
> Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (Em)
> http://www.velocity.net/~trebor/
> trebor@velocity.net
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard A. Lindgren" <ral5q@VIRGINIA.EDU>
> To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 3:44 PM
> Subject: Re: point particles
>
>
> > . . .
> > If the electron had a slight displacement of its center of
> > mass to its center of charge, it would have what is called
> > an electric dipole moment.  . . .