Electric Field due to Dipole

While reading Fundamentals of Physics by Resnick Halliday..
I encountered a particular Explanation on pg 527 that I haven't understood properly..
It is given that the electric field of a dipole decreases more rapidly with distance than does the electric field of a single charge.The physical reason given is that from distant points a dipole looks like two equal but opposite charges that "almost but not quite" coincide.
What do you mean by this statement..??

2 Answers

62
Lokesh Verma ·

If you look at a dipole from very far.. the net charge is zero..

but in a single point charge the net charge still remains..

That is what it means...

Did you understand it now?

1
Kartik Sondhi ·

E on the axis when r>>2l then =9G *2P/r3 ......(i)
E on the equatorial line =-(i)/2
therefore it rapidly decreases

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