Practice portal › Electric Charge and Properties › Electric Field of Point Charges

An electric field line is a curve drawn in such a way that the tangent drawn at any point on the curve gives _____ at that point.

Asked in GSEB Board March 2022 · Electric field lines

Answer: (2) direction of the electric field

Step-by-step solution

Idea: field lines are drawn so that a small positive test charge placed on one would be pushed along it.

At every point the tangent to the line points along ⃗E there; that is how the lines are constructed.

The magnitude is shown separately, by the density of lines: where they crowd together the field is strong, where they spread out it is weak.

This is also why two field lines never cross: at a crossing the field would have two directions at one point.

So the tangent gives the direction of the electric field.

Why the other options are wrong

More Electric Field of Point Charges questionsAll Electric Field of Point Charges questions →

Reading this solution needs no sign-in. You only sign in to practise against the clock and keep your progress.

Practise this with a timer