electric multipole

electric multipole

[i¦lek·trik ′məl·tə‚pōl] (electromagnetism) One of a series of types of static or oscillating charge distributions; the multipole of order 1 is a point charge or a spherically symmetric distribution, and the electric and magnetic fields produced by an electric multipole of order 2 n are equivalent to those of two electric multipoles of order 2 n-1of equal strengths, but opposite sign, separated from each other by a short distance.