Put . Squaring the two nonnegative moduli and expanding gives . Completing the square yields
Thus the locus is an Apollonius circle with center and radius . No extraneous points were introduced by squaring, because both original sides are nonnegative. Its intersections with the imaginary axis are and , useful landmarks for the sketch. It surrounds zero but does not pass through zero:
Figure 1.
Apollonius circle centered at three eighths i with radius nine eighths and imaginary-axis intercepts minus three quarters i and three halves i
.
Take the wire at to carry and that at to carry . If
then, up to one additive constant,
Thus an equipotential with satisfies . For , completing the square gives the Apollonius circle
Its centre is and its radius is . Positive and negative values give nested circles around the positive and negative wires. The electric field is orthogonal to these circles and points from the positive wire toward the negative wire. For , the limiting equipotential is the straight line .
Direct superposition gives
In the limit with , the potential and field become those of a two-dimensional electric dipole:
and