How to apply sum function for simulating charges around a circle?

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I'm trying to model electric potential energy of protons arranged in a circle, graphically is(the next plot was made manually in geogebra 3d),
For :
Asumming k=1, q1=1, q2=2 , mathematically can been described as:
The thing is that i want to generalize this into a summation function in matlab for n charges separated in the circle, mathematically it will be:
I try the next code, but it doesn't work. Any suggestions? I can't understand how the sum function works exactly:
[x,y,t]=meshgrid(-15:0.5:15,-15:0.5:15, 0:pi/8:pi/2);
r=5;
z=sum(1./sqrt((x-r*cos(t)).^2+(y-r*sin(t).^2)), 3);
surf(x(:,:,1),y(:,:,1),z);

Answers (2)

Matt J
Matt J on 9 Mar 2021
Edited: Matt J on 9 Mar 2021
xs=linspace(0,10,500);
[x,y,t]=meshgrid(xs,xs, 0:pi/8:pi/2);
r=5;
z=sum(1./ ( (x-r*cos(t)).^2 + (y-r*sin(t)).^2 ), 3);
surf(x(:,:,1),y(:,:,1),z,'EdgeColor','none','FaceAlpha',0.3,'FaceColor','g');
  6 Comments
Matt J
Matt J on 9 Mar 2021
Edited: Matt J on 9 Mar 2021
Is the same r being used in the geogebra drawing? Also, you've presented different versions of your equations in different places, some with sqrt()'s and some without. Including or removing sqrt would affect the sharpness of the peaks.
Here's what we get with r=1 and including the sqrt():
r=1;
xs=linspace(0,1.5*r,500);
[y,x,t]=ndgrid(xs,xs, 0:pi/8:pi/2);
z=sum(1./ sqrt( (x-r*cos(t)).^2 + (y-r*sin(t)).^2 ), 3);
surf(x(:,:,1),y(:,:,1),z,'EdgeColor','none','FaceAlpha',0.3);
zlim([0,30]); view([-45,30])
axis vis3d
grid off

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Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 9 Mar 2021
It would only take a small modification to the z = formula I showed there.

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