| DESCRIPTION:
This simulation illustrates the electric field generated
by a charged ring, and shows how, by the principle of
superposition, a continuous charge distribution can
be thought of as the sum of many discrete charge elements
(in this case, thirty). Each element generates its own
field, described by Coulomb's Law (and represented here
by the small vectors attached to the observation point),
which, when added to the contribution from all the other
elements, results in the total field of the ring (given
by the large resultant vector). In this animation, each
element is being added up one by one (indicated by the
highlighted portion of the ring), and the total field
changes accordingly. As the entire ring is integrated,
the components of the field contributions in the plane
of the ring are cancelled out, leaving a total field
that is perpendicular to the ring on its central axis.
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