DESCRIPTION:
An animation of the motion of a positively charged
particle repelled by the positively charged sphere of
a van de Graaff generator.
When the charge is moving
toward the sphere and slowing down, its kinetic energy
is decreasing and the energy is being stored in the
local electric field as that field is compressed. When
the charge is moving away from the sphere and speeding
up, its kinetic energy is increasing as the energy previously
stored in the compressed field is released.
The motion of the texture patterns
used to present the field is in the direction of the Poynting flux, that is, in the direction of the electrostatic energy flow, and you can see the energy moving as described above in the animation.
A description of how we produce the animation patterns which move in the direction of energy flow is given HERE.
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