Pencils of circles of equal potentials

In a point \(P\) of the Euclidean plane \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\), the potential of a mass \(m_ 1\) being situated at a point \(P_ 1\) is \(m_ 1/| P - P_ 1|\). The equipotential of two masses \((m_ 1,P_ 1)\), \((m_ 2,P_ 2)\) is the circle of Apollonius \(c_{12} : m_ 2 \cdot | P - P_ 1| = m_ 1 \cdot | P - P_ 2|\). The authors prove several fundamental properties of these ``circles of equal potential, for instance: For three masses \((m_ i,P_ i)\), \(i = 1,2,3\), the three circles \(c_{12}\), \(c_{23}\), \(c_{13}\) belong to a single pencil of circles; its radical axis contains the circumcentre of \(\Delta P_ 1 P_ 2 P_ 3\) (Prop. 2). Given a pair of conjugate pencils of circles with focal points \(F\) and \(G\), a mass distribution in the plane \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\) with the mass \(m_ i\) at each point \(P_ i\) proportional to \((| P_ i - F| \cdot | P_ i - G|)^{1/2}\) has the property that the circle of equal potential of two masses belongs to one of the pencils if and only if the two masses lie on an arc of a circle in the other pencil; these are the only mass distributions with this property (Theorem 1).

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(1)

An Intriguing Property of the Center of Mass for Points on Quadratic Curves and Surfaces

This page was built for publication: Pencils of circles of equal potentials

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1331277)