Q.Read the following paragraph and answer the questions that follow : Electric Field Lines : Electric field lines are a way of pictorially mapping electric field around a configuration of charges. An electric field line is in general, a curve drawn in such a way that tangent to it at any point gives the direction of the net electric field at that point. An electric field line is a space curve. Relative density (i.e. closeness) of electric field lines at different points indicate the relative strength of electric field at those points. Electric field lines start from positive charge and end at negative charge. In a charge free region electric field lines may be taken to be continuous curves without any break. Electrostatic field lines do not form any closed loops.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →(i) A positive point charge's field lines point radially outward. (ii) Field-line density gives field strength — denser near A and C means EA = EC, and both exceed EB. (iii) Field lines never cross, and their density indicates field strength.
(i) Field lines about a positive point charge: A positive point charge is a source of electric field lines — they emanate symmetrically from the charge in all directions, pointing AWAY from it (since a small positive test charge placed nearby would be pushed radially outward by the like-charge repulsion). So the lines are radial and outward.
(ii) Comparing EA, EB, EC from the figure: The passage states that the relative density (closeness) of field lines at a point indicates the relative strength of the field there. From the figure, the lines are equally dense near A and near C (both are where the lines bunch closer together at the narrow ends of the lens/eye shape), while near B (the widest part, in the middle) the lines are spread further apart, i.e., less dense. So:
EA = EC (same density) and both are greater than EB (lower density)
EA = EC > EB
(iii) Two properties of electric field lines (from the passage and standard theory):
- Field lines never intersect each other — if two lines crossed, the field at that point would have two different directions simultaneously, which is meaningless (the field at any point has a single, unique direction). …
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