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Charges of $-q$ are located at both $y = a$ and $y = -a$, and a charge of $+3q$ is located at $y = 0$ on the y-axis. This arrangement of charge can be visualized as two opposing dipoles plus a charge at the center.

a) Find the electric field (magnitude and direction) at an arbitrary point on the x-axis.

b) What are the first two nonzero terms in the electric field evaluated far from the charges, i.e. - for $x >> a$? Your answer should be a series of terms in inverse powers of $x$.


Robert G. Brown 2003-02-09