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Asked in GSEB Board March 2023 · Torque, energy and work done
Given: field lines that spread apart from left to right and point to the right; the dipole lies along the central line with -q on the left and +q on the right, so ⃗p points along ⃗E.
Idea: the field is stronger where the lines are closer together, so here the field E₁ at -q is larger than the field E₂ at +q.
Force on -q: qE₁ to the left (opposite to ⃗E). Force on +q: qE₂ to the right.
Net force = q(E₁ - E₂) to the left, since E₁ > E₂.
In general, a dipole lined up with a non-uniform field is pulled towards the region where the field is stronger.
So the dipole experiences a net force towards the left.
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