Re: Induced dipole moments

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> Put another way, the field of a spherical negative charge
> distribution and an off-center point positive charge is not a simple
> dipole.

It certainly looks like one in the limit of small displacement and
*outside* the negatively charged sphere if the system is neutral.
It may be of value to point out these limitations, but the statement
above is not conceptually helpful as it stands.

Linearity is only approximated for small fields. The rigid negative
charge distribution is an entirely appropriate model in this case.

Leigh