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Physics · Glossary

What is Field lines?

Also known as: field line

Definition 14.8 High School Physics · Chapter 14 — Electric and Gravitational Fields

A field line is a curve everywhere tangent to the field, an arrow giving the field’s direction. Three rules:

  • they leave positive charges and arrive at negative charges;
  • where lines crowd the field is strong; where they spread, weak;
  • two lines never cross: the field has one direction at each point.
Field lines of a point charge: radially out of +, into -; the crowding near the charge pictures the 1/d2 growth of the field. Field lines of a point charge: radially out of +, into -; the crowding near the charge pictures the 1/d2 growth of the field.
Field lines of a point charge: radially out of ++, into −-; the crowding near the charge pictures the 1/d21/d^2 growth of the field.
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