Quadrupole expressed as a combination of dipoles?

[Victor]

Would it be possible to express a quadrupole as an expansion of dipoles? After all, a possible definition of a quadrupole seems to be: “electric field equivalent to that produced by two electric dipoles”

Also, for any dipole vector (so tensor of rank 1) a magnitude and direction can be determined. What would the physical meaning of this magnitude and direction be? Analogously, can the magnitude of a quadrupole (tensor of rank 2) be determined? And is there such a thing as a ‘direction’ of a quadrupole? (in analogy to the dipole which is a vector …)

[Author]

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