Question

What are the rules for drawing electric field patterns?

Answer 1

Electric field is the region around a charge where force is experienced due to that charge. Electric lines of forces are open curves which are used to represent the electric field in space. Electric lines have certain properties using which we can draw electric field lines for a conductor.

Complete step by step answer:
Electric field is the region around a static charge in which force due to that charge is experienced by a unit charge kept in that field. Its SI unit is N/C.
Electric field is represented by the electric lines of forces. Electric lines of forces are open curves which represent the direction of electric fields.
Some properties of electric lines of forces are as follows-
The direction of electric lines goes from higher potential to lower potential or from positive charge to negative charge
Intersection cannot take place between two electric lines of forces.
The density of electric lines tells us about the strength of the electric field, the more the density of electric lines, the stronger the field in that region and vice versa.
The electric lines of forces are perpendicular to the charged surface.
Tangent drawn to an electric line gives us the direction of the electric field.
Therefore, the electric lines of forces can be drawn based on their properties.

Note: Electric field can also be defined as the force acting per unit charge or the work done to bring a charge from infinity to a point in the electric field. Electric lines of forces are open because there is no electric field inside a conductor. The movement of charge takes place from higher potential to lower potential.