Electric fields

All electrically charged objects have an electric field around them.

There are two types of electrical charge:

• positive
• negative

In an electric field a charged particle, or charged object, experiences a force. If the forces acting on any object are unbalanced, it will cause the object to accelerate.

With this in mind:

• if two objects with the same charge are brought towards each other the force produced will be repulsive, it will push them apart
• if two objects with opposite charges are brought towards each other the force will be attractive, it will pull them towards each other

The two diagrams above are examples of electric fields.

The lines in the diagrams are lines of force. These show how charged particles will move in the electric field.

The direction of the arrow shows the direction a positively charged particle will move.

Negatively charged particles, for example electrons, will move in the opposite direction to the arrow.