Question

2 WEEK 1. ELECTRIC CHARGE AND DRAWING FIELD LINES 1.3 Definition of Electric Field 1. The gravitational field was defined in terms of the force on a test mass. For the electric field, should we specify that the test charge should be positive or negative? Does it matter which we choose? What would be the result if we made the other choice. 2. What does the direction of the field lines indicate? 3. What aspect of the drawing indicates the magnitude of the force on a charged particle?

Answer 1

Electric field at a point is defined as force acting per unit test charge. E^vector = F^vector/q_0 if the test charge is positive, electric field will be in the direction of force acting on test charge. if test charge is negative, electric field will be in opposite direction as that of the force. E^vector = F^vector/-q or E^vector = -F^vector/q Eg (1) when test charge is positive, electric field due to �+ Q� charge at point �p� will be E^vector = F^vector/q_0 when test charge is -ve. E^vector = -F^vector/q_0 0 degrees electric field does not depend upon the polarity of test charge. \r\n we know that E^vector = F^vector/q or F^vector = qE^vector Force acting on a given charge �q� when placed in external electric field is given by F^vector = qE^vector Therefore the force will be in the direction of electric field, when the charge is positive. and the force will be in opposite direction of electric
Basic concepts of electric fields