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UIUC Physics 435 EM Fields & Sources I Fall Semester, 2007 Lecture Notes 8 Prof. Steven Errede LECTURE NOTES 8
POTENTIAL APPROXIMATION TECHNIQUES: THE ELECTRIC MULTIPOLE EXPANSION AND MOMENTS OF THE ELECTRIC CHARGE DISTRIBUTION
There are often situations that arise where an “observer” is far away from a localized charge distribution ρ ()r and wants to know what the potential Vr( ) and / or the electric field intensity Er() are far from the localized charge distribution.
If the localized charge distribution has a net electric charge Q , then far away from this net localized charge distribution, the potential Vr( ) to a good approximation will behave very much like that of a point charge,