Why can't the two charges in an electric dipole exist independently in an uniform electric field? What I mean is, why should they behave as if they are connected together by a rod between them? What is the physical significance of electric dipole moment?
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3 Answers
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If they are not connected by a rod then they would just go off in opposite directions. Only if they are physically connected to the equal and opposite forces on both charges get canceled. Then it will just experience a net torque and no force
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A dipole is defined as a pair of equal and opposite electric charges that are separated by a fixed small distance.
If they will not be constrained to stay a fixed distance then they will not be classified as a dipole because they can have variable distance between them.
The physical significance of the dipole moment is that it gives a measure of the polarity/polarization of a net neutral system. If it is small, either the magnitude of the charge on the dipole is small or the distance between the charge is small.
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$\begingroup$ That's not entirely accurate. A dipole model relies mostly on a "large distance" approximation, in other words the distance between charges must remain small, but not necessarily constant. If it varies, the system is called a Hertz dipole, but it's still a dipole (typically studied within the context of electromagnetic waves). $\endgroup$– MiyaseCommented Feb 29 at 13:00
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Dipole can't exist independently as per my concern, formation of dipole must exist in bounded system i.e charges are bounded. For example, assuming an atom, if external electrostatic force is applied, the atomic structure deformed as per the law, but still e clouds are attracted with nucleus, forming a dipole as net charge is zero.
