Monopoles, Dipoles, and Quadruples

The terms monopole, dipole, and quadrupole may sound daunting, but in fact they are very simple concepts. A monopole is defined as single point charge, a dipole a system of two oppositely charged particles, and a quadrupole is a set of two dipoles. Look at the following illustration to determine what this looks like qualitatively. We will treat these quantitatively as well in a moment.

Click the image below to view the animation.