Electric Field Lines and right angles

AI Thread Summary
Electric field lines intersect equipotential lines at right angles because equipotential surfaces indicate points of equal potential, meaning no work is done when moving a charge along them. The electric field can be decomposed into components, with only the normal component contributing to work done, which is zero along the equipotential line. Therefore, the electric field must be perpendicular to the equipotential lines. This relationship ensures that the electric field direction is always normal to the equipotential surfaces. Understanding this concept is crucial for grasping the behavior of electric fields and potentials.
phy
Why are electric field lines always crossing equipotential lines at right angles? Can somebody please explain this to me? Thanks :smile:
 
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phy said:
Why are electric field lines always crossing equipotential lines at right angles? Can somebody please explain this to me? Thanks :smile:

Equipotential line or surface means that the potential is the same at every point. If two points are at the same potential then no work is done when a charge q is transferred from one point to the other. Take two points close to each other along the equipotential line, at a distance of ds, and decompose the electric field into components normal (En) and parallel (Es) to the line. The work done when the charge is transferred is simply q*Es*ds and this is zero, that is the electric field has only normal component to the equipotential line.

ehild
 
Didn't I answer this question already?? Please avoid duplicate posts of the same message.
 
Thread 'Motional EMF in Faraday disc, co-rotating magnet axial mean flux'

Thread 'Motional EMF in Faraday disc, co-rotating magnet axial mean flux'

So here is the motional EMF formula. Now I understand the standard Faraday paradox that an axis symmetric field source (like a speaker motor ring magnet) has a magnetic field that is frame invariant under rotation around axis of symmetry. The field is static whether you rotate the magnet or not. So far so good. What puzzles me is this , there is a term average magnetic flux or "azimuthal mean" , this term describes the average magnetic field through the area swept by the rotating Faraday...
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