Electric Field Lines | Properties of Electric Field Lines

Electric Field Lines

It is a curve drawn in such a way that the tangent at each point on the curve gives the direction of the electric field at that point.

• It is a vector quantity.

• It is represented as vectors.

• The magnitude of the electric field at a point decreases inversely as the square of the distance of that point from the charge and area enclosing the charge increases as the square of the distance, the number of field lines crossing the enclosing area remains constant.

• The magnitude of the electric field is represented by electric field lines.

• It is a space curve, i.e., a curve in three dimensions.

• The closeness of field lines indicates the relative strength of the electric field at that point.

• They crowd near each other where the electric field is strong and far away from where the electric field is weak.

• The field lines are uniformly spaced straight lines in regions of the constant electric field.

Properties of Electric Field Lines

• Electric field lines start from positive charges and end at negative charges. In the case of a single charge, they may start or end at infinity.

• Two field lines can never intersect each other. If that happens then, the field at that point of intersection will not have a unique direction, which is not possible.

• Electric field lines do not form any closed loops (because of the conservative nature of the electric field).

• Electric field lines can be taken to be Continuous curves in a charge-free region.