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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2018 October 23

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October 23

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Movement of electric charges in an electrostatic field or potential

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(I'm posting this for an anon user who can't because of the current block. --RDBury (talk) 00:22, 23 October 2018 (UTC))[reply]

What type of movement of electric charges, used for defining the electrostatic field and its circulation, can occur in an electrostatic potential, where charges are supposed not to move?--82.137.8.89 (talk) 19:58, 22 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Is this movement of electric charges a sort of a quasistatic process? Can it be called electrostatic currrent?--82.137.11.66 (talk) 20:19, 22 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If charges literally cannot move at all, they cannot contribute to changes in an electric field. However, you may be thinking of the concept of displacement current. This is indeed a movement of charge, but not necessarily a gross movement of particles. The common example is the polarization of dielectric in a capacitor. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:49, 23 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]