Themes > Science > Physics > Electromagnetism > Electrostatics > Electric field > Electric field > What does an electric field look like?

An electric field can be visualized on paper by drawing lines of force, which give an indication of both the size and the strength of the field. Lines of force are also called field lines. Field lines start on positive charges and end on negative charges, and the direction of the field line at a point tells you what direction the force experienced by a charge will be if the charge is placed at that point. If the charge is positive, it will experience a force in the same direction as the field; if it is negative the force will be opposite to the field.

The fields from isolated, individual charges look like this:

When there is more than one charge in a region, the electric field lines will not be straight lines; they will curve in response to the different charges. In every case, though, the field is highest where the field lines are close together, and decreases as the lines get further apart.


Information provided by: http://physics.bu.edu