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When the surface is perpendicular to the electric field, maximum number of lines are intercepted by the surface. To understand this more, let us consider a surface, which is inserted through electric field in three different orientations.
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The first two points are pretty obvious but the interesting point here is the orientation of the surface.
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Orientation of the surface with respect to the lines of force.Then exploring further, the lines of force passing through a surface of a given area is dependent on three factors: The concept of flux is always associated with something (electric field, in this case) going through a given area. Electric Flux is defined as the total number of lines of electric force in any particular electric field. Electric Flux is the total number of tubes of flux in an electric field i.e. This bunch or small closed area is called a Tube of Flux. According to his studies, electric field is composed of small bunches of electric lines of force, which are fixed in number. The field lines or flux lines can be used to pictorially represent the distribution of Electric Flux around a charge.īased on the experiments performed by Michael Faraday in late 1830’s, Electric Field around a charge can be imagined as presence of lines of force around it. The Electric Field, imagined to be present around a charge, can be represented in terms of a quantity known as Electric Flux. Normally, the flux lines enter or leave a charged surface.All the flux lines are parallel to each other.The strength of the electric field is dependent on the number of flux lines.Flux lines generally originate at positive charges and terminate at negative charges.These lines of force are called Field Lines or Flux Lines.Įlectric Field or Flux Lines are the lines of force around a charge with the following properties: The direction of this force can be represented by lines that are radially coming out of a positive charge or going in towards a negative charge. In the above example, a unit test charge ‘q’ placed near a point charge ‘Q’ experiences the force. Electric Field is defined as the force per unit charge at a particular point.įor example, the Electric Field of a point charge ‘Q’ on a test charge ‘q’ at a distance is given by Before going further into the main topics of discussion, let us quickly recap some of the important concepts.
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