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Charges 0
Net charge 0
Field lines 0
Mode Field lines
Preset
Show:
Lines per charge 16
Charge magnitude 1.0
Equipotential levels 12

Coulomb's law and the electric field

Every electric charge creates an electric field that extends through all of space. The field at any point is the force a unit positive test charge would experience there. For a point charge Q, the field strength falls off as 1/r² — Coulomb’s inverse-square law, the electrical analog of gravity.

Field lines

Field lines are curves tangent to the electric field at every point. They begin on positive charges and end on negative charges (or extend to infinity). The density of lines indicates field strength. Field lines never cross — if they did, the field would point in two directions at once.

Equipotential contours

Equipotential lines connect points of equal electric potential. They are always perpendicular to the field lines. No work is done moving a charge along an equipotential. Near a single charge, equipotentials are concentric circles; between multiple charges, they deform into complex shapes that reveal the geometry of the field.

Superposition

The total field from multiple charges is the vector sum of each individual field — the superposition principle. This is why you can drag charges around and watch the entire field pattern reconfigure instantly.