Electric Field Lines can be defined as a curve which shows the direction of the electric field when we draw a tangent at its point.
The electric field is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. Therefore, the electric field near the charge is high and keeps on decreasing as distance increase from the charge.
The field lines follow some important general properties:
- Field lines start from positive charges and end at negative charges. If there is a single charge, they may start or end at infinity.
- In a charge-free region, electric field lines can be taken to be continuous curves without any breaks.
- Two field lines can never cross each other. (If they did, the field at the point of intersection will not have a unique direction, which is absurd.)
- Electrostatic field lines do not form any closed loops.This follows from the conservative nature of the electric field.
