PHYS 251 Chapter Notes - Chapter 21.5-21.6: Equipotential, Electrocardiography, Electric Dipole Moment
Document Summary
Source charges create an electric potential everywhere in the space around them. The electric potential and electric fields are not two distinct entities; they are two different perspectives of how source charges alter the space around them. When a charge moves along an equipotential, its potential and potential energy do not change (no work is done) The electric field at a point is perpendicular to the equipotential surface of that point. The electric field points in the direction of decreasing potential. Any two points inside a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium are at the same potential. The electrical activity of cardiac muscles makes the beating heart an electric dipole. When triggered by an electrical impulse from the s-a node, the heart begins to depolarize. The boundary between polarized and depolarized cells sweeps rapidly across the atria. At the boundary, there is a charge separation which creates an electric dipole and an associated dipole moment.
