Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-2-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017-resit/8/a/solution

Take from the negative to the positive point charge. Their electric dipole moment is . Place them at and use the superposition principle for the electric potential:
For , the first-order Taylor expansion of the reciprocal distances gives
to leading electric dipole order. In spherical coordinates aligned with , the gradient gives , and . Thus
Equivalently, the electric dipole field is . The omitted terms vanish relative to these leading expressions as .

New to topics? Read the docs here!