QSTRIPS-a charge simulation program to enhance EM instruction

A description is given of a charge simulation computer routine, QSTRIPS, written by the authors to enhance elementary electromagnetics instruction by providing a readily available graphics-oriented capability to permit students to learn by self-discovery. QSTRIPS gives students the freedom to model, solve, and produce parameter and graphical data for two-dimensional personalized electromagnetic structures of their own specification, structures that are not usually amenable to normal analytical solution methods. QSTRIPS models two-dimensional electrostatic systems by long narrow strips of flat-topped charge pulses placed contiguously around the surface of the system´s structures. Strips of known charge and unknown voltage and of known voltage and unknown charge as well as strips defining dielectric and permanently polarized structures can be specified for the same system. A matrix equation is set up and solved for any unknown charges on these strips. Several examples including the hot cap trough problem are considered