Electric dipole moment
![Animation showing the electric field of an electric dipole. The dipole consists of two point electric charges of opposite polarity located close together. A transformation from a point-shaped dipole to a finite-size electric dipole is shown.A molecule of water is polar because of the unequal sharing of its electrons in a](/Images/godic/202501/10/VFPt_dipole_animation_electric4704.gif")
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![Electric dipole p and its torque τ in a uniform E field.](/Images/godic/202501/10/Electric_dipole_torque_uniform_field.svg4705.png")
![An electric dipole potential map. In blue negative potentials while in red positive ones.](/Images/godic/202501/10/lossy-page1-220px-DipolePotential.tiff4705.jpg")
In physics, the electric dipole moment is a measure of the separation of positive and negative electrical charges in a system of electric charges, that is, a measure of the charge system's overall polarity. The SI units are Coulomb-meter (C m), however the most commonly used unit is the Debye (D). The electric field strength of the dipole is proportional to the magnitude of dipole moment.