Electrostatic Equilibrium Explorer

Live Script exploring electrostatic equilibrium using a simple model of conduction.

This Live Script explores electrostatic induction by modeling currents that lead to the equilibrium charge distribution. The method entails only elementary concepts encountered in a first year survey of physics course and is more accessible than solving the Laplace equation that governs the final electric field. The script is similar to Ref [1] which derives equilibrium surface charge distributions from global energy minimization.

This script may interest students and instructors of physics. Background information is provided. 'Try this' suggestions, coding 'Challenges', and hyperlinks to documentation are included for further exploration.