The electric field can be represented by drawing what is called the lines of force. They can be straight or curved .
Why electric field lines are not straight?
If the lines cross each other at a given location, then there must be two distinctly different values of electric field with their own individual direction at that given location. ... Consequently, the lines representing the field cannot cross each other at any given location in space .
Can electric field lines be straight?
In an uniform electric field, the field lines are straight , parallel and uniformly spaced. The electric field lines can never form closed loops, as line can never start and end on the same charge.
What are the rules for drawing electric field lines?
- 1) Electric field lines are always drawn from High potential to. ...
- 2) Two electric field lines can never intersect each other.
- 3) The net electric field inside a Conductor is Zero.
- 4) Electric field line from a positive charge is drawn radially outwards and from a negative charge radially inwards.
Do field vectors have to be straight?
It does not . It merely represent an idea of magnitude. So it wouldn’t make any sense to draw a single vector as a curved line. Even when drawing vector fields it is understood that at any given point the vector has a particular magnitude.
Where is the electric field the strongest?
The field is strongest where the lines are most closely spaced . The electric field lines converge toward charge 1 and away from 2, which means charge 1 is negative and charge 2 is positive.
Why are electric field lines curves?
Note that as you move away from the two point charges an equal distance apart, the lines look like those at the ends of your parallel plate capacitor (curved lines). Towards the center between the charges, the field lines start to look straight and evenly spaced (parallel lines). Hope this helps.
How do you draw an electric field diagram?
One common convention is to surround more charged objects by more lines. Objects with greater charge create stronger electric fields. By surrounding a highly charged object with more lines, one can communicate the strength of an electric field in the space surrounding a charged object by the line density.
What is the equation for electric field strength?
The field strength between the two parallel surfaces E, equals, V, slash, d,E=V/d where V is the voltage difference between the surfaces, and d is their separation. This means that the unit of electric field strength, the N, C, to the power minus 1 ,NC−1 is equivalent to the V, m, to the power minus 1 ,Vm−1.
Why do we need electric field?
Electric fields provide us with the pushing force we need to induce current flow . An electric field in a circuit is like an electron pump: a large source of negative charges that can propel electrons, which will flow through the circuit towards the positive lump of charges.
Can vectors not be straight?
Vectors in the plane or in space are not lines ; they are straight-line motions. You can add two motions to get a third, or scale a motion to get a larger or smaller motion in the same direction. But they do not have a start or an end point the way a line segment does.
Can electric field be negative?
Electric field is not negative . It is a vector and thus has negative and positive directions. An electron being negatively charged experiences a force against the direction of the field. For a positive charge, the force is along the field.
Can field lines cross each other?
Electric field lines cannot cross . ... This is because they are, by definition, a line of constant potential. The equipotential at a given point in space can only have a single value. If lines for two different values of the potential were to cross, then they would no longer represent equipotential lines.
Where is the field strongest weakest How do you know?
The relative magnitude of the electric field is proportional to the density of the field lines. Where the field lines are close together the field is strongest ; where the field lines are far apart the field is weakest. If the lines are uniformly-spaced and parallel, the field is uniform.
Where is the electric field equal to zero?
There is a spot along the line connecting the charges, just to the “far” side of the positive charge (on the side away from the negative charge) where the electric field is zero. In general, the zero field point for opposite sign charges will be on the “outside” of the smaller magnitude charge.
How do you know the direction of an electric field?
The direction of the electric field is always directed in the direction that a positive test charge would be pushed or pulled if placed in the space surrounding the source charge . Since electric field is a vector quantity, it can be represented by a vector arrow.
