Charged line segments and ellipsoidal equipotentials

Original · EN

This is a survey of the electrostatic potentials produced by charged straight-line segments, in various numbers of spatial dimensions, with comparisons between uniformly charged segments and those having non-uniform linear charge distributions that give rise to ellipsoidal equipotentials surrounding the segments. A uniform linear distribution of charge is compatible with ellipsoidal equipotentials only for three dimensions. In higher dimensions, the linear charge density giving rise to ellipsoidal equipotentials is counter-intuitive --- the charge distribution has a maximum at the center of the segment and vanishes at the ends of the segment. Only in two dimensions is the continuous charge distribution intuitive --- for that one case of ellipsoidal equipotentials, the charge is peaked at the ends of the segment and minimized at the center.