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Registered Member #29
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 09:00AM
Location: Hasselt, Belgium
Posts: 500
Good fundamental questions!
1) If you have a conducting surface, charges will distribute themselves such that the energy in the electric field in the surrounding space is a minimum. (Google "principle of minimum energy"). Note that this is a fundamental physical phenomenon that applies to all physical processes and is particularly important in thermodynamics, etc.
2) The same principle applies in your second question.. The charge concentrated near the point represents the minimum energy configuration. The field intensity can become (theoretically) infinite, but the energy density is always integrable. I played with some of the mathematics a few years ago here.
Registered Member #72
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659
Whereas all that Mr Rider said was correct, it misses the anthropomorphic point about why the charge "loves" to go to surfaces and corners.
It will minimise its energy by behaving as if it "hates" its own kind, every electron strives to get as far away from the others as it can, and heads for where the electric field can be made greatest. Sort of.
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Distribution of electric charge
