annamal
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I do not understand why electric fields cannot cross. Can't you just sum the two electric fields vectors to get a net electric field?
https://physics.stackexchange.com/q...-two-or-more-electric-field-lines-never-crossHornbein said:Yes you can sum. The net field contains no crossing lines.
That is not what the explanations on that page say. Summing multiple field vectors is literally what you do if you want to find the net electric field from multiple electric charges. If you do this at each point in a field and then draw field lines you will find that no lines ever cross.annamal said:https://physics.stackexchange.com/q...-two-or-more-electric-field-lines-never-cross
says they cannot cross, which means you cannot sum
Ok, so electric field lines are always drawn from the net electric fieldDrakkith said:That is not what the explanations on that page say. Summing multiple field vectors is literally what you do if you want to find the net electric field from multiple electric charges. If you do this at each point in a field and then draw field lines you will find that no lines ever cross.
Right, from the field you would get if you went out and measured it. All the "field lines can't cross" means is that you can't measure two different field values in one place and time.annamal said:Ok, so electric field lines are always drawn from the net electric field
Where did you get this from? It's obviously wrong, because the electric field has sources, which are charges. Consequently the electric-field lines cross at the position of the charge. The most simple example is the Coulomb field of a point charge: All field lines cross at the position of this point charge.annamal said:I do not understand why electric fields cannot cross. Can't you just sum the two electric fields vectors to get a net electric field?
I'd say they terminate/originate at a point charge, not cross.vanhees71 said:The most simple example is the Coulomb field of a point charge: All field lines cross at the position of this point charge.
https://physics.stackexchange.com/q...-two-or-more-electric-field-lines-never-crossvanhees71 said:Where did you get this from? It's obviously wrong, because the electric field has sources, which are charges. Consequently the electric-field lines cross at the position of the charge. The most simple example is the Coulomb field of a point charge: All field lines cross at the position of this point charge.
Forgive me, I'm not familiar with Green's function or the Laplace operator. Can you elaborate on how field lines leaving or converging on a point charge is the same as field lines crossing? Or have I misunderstood you?vanhees71 said:Sure, but the point charge is the most simple example of a field singularity, where the argument concerning the uniqueness of the direction of the field that field lines never can cross, goes wrong, and it's in fact a very important example, because it's nothing else than the Greens' function of the Laplace operator (in free space), which naturally is very important for electrostatics.
But they don't appear to cross each other at the location of a point charge.vanhees71 said:The field lines of the Coulomb field all intersect (or rather start) at the location of the point charge.
I think his point was more that the question of "crossing or not" makes no sense at the singularity. But I don't really see how any of that relates to the OP's post. They don't cross; you know, where you can ask that question.Drakkith said:But they don't appear to cross each other at the location of a point charge.
You can not sum because there aren't really two (or more) things to sum. At each point in space there is only one e-field vector. It only points in one direction*.annamal said:says they cannot cross, which means you cannot sum
I would say they meet, rather than cross. I'd reserve "cross" for the (unphysical) case where you have one field line that satisfies ##x=0\ \forall\ y## and another that satisfies ##y=0\ \forall\ x## - they cross at the origin because they carry on through (or would, if that were physically plausible). On the other hand I'd say field lines from a point charge at the origin meet there, because they don't pass through the meeting place - the lines in the ##\pm x## directions are distinct field lines.vanhees71 said:For me field lines cross at a point charge
Ah, that's probably it. The lines in the letter 'X' cross, but the lines making up the letter 'V' do not, they simply meet each other.vanhees71 said:Maybe it's a language problem. English is not my mother tongue.