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Designing an Electric Field
Keywords: Maxwell's Equations, Voltage, Jacob's Ladder, reference point, Small Group
Students make up their own electric field and write down its vector formulation, sketch it, check that it satisfies Maxwell's equations, and justify the choice of a reference point to measure its potential. Jacob's Ladder is used as a demonstration and students are asked to make sense of the physical behavior they observe.
Goals of the activity:
Gain confidence with divergence and curl, and understand what they mean physically
See a relationship between mathematical representation of E-field and graphical
coloradodesignefieldguide.pdf
Authors: Darren Tarshis, Dr. Stephanie Chasteen, Dr. Steven Pollock
of the University of Colorado - Boulder
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