The equilibrium configurations of several different systems of pointlike charges placed on an ellipse are considered. The suitability of these discrete systems as models for finding the equilibrium charge distribution in a conducting wire of negligible cross section is also discussed. This example might prove useful in a course on computational physics, especially in order to illustrate the dangers of naive discretizations of continuous physical problems.

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© 1990 American Institute of Physics.
1990
American Institute of Physics