Exploration 25.2: Electric Field Lines and Equipotentials

Please wait for the animation to completely load.

The panel on the left displays an equipotential plot.   Restart.

1. What is an equipotential line? 
2. How are electric field lines related to equipotential lines?
3. Draw the electric field lines for this potential by dragging the pencil (at its tip) after clicking the "draw on" button.  Use the print screen function on your computer to print out a copy of your drawing. 
4. After you have made your drawing, determine which electric field (1, 2, 3, or 4) best represents the region.  Explain your choice.  Note that the arrows in the field plot represent the direction, and the colors represent the magnitude of the electric field.  
5. Was your drawing a good representation of the actual field?  Did you have any misunderstandings?  Explain.

Need help?  Enable Field Lines on Double-Click to see the field lines in the contour view by double-clicking in the region.  Note: There is a short delay between the "click" and the drawing of the field line. 

Exploration authored by Mario Belloni and Wolfgang Christian and modified by Melissa Dancy.
© 2004 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Company