I read in my physics textbook that \"Electric field lines can beginand end. They
ID: 1668108 • Letter: I
Question
I read in my physics textbook that "Electric field lines can beginand end. They come out of positive charges and end at negativecharges. Magnetic field lines, however, don't begin or end. Theyalways form closed loops."I am confused. I need elaboration on this statement please. Whydoes the book's statement about electric field lines make sense?For the magnetic part: where is the "closed loop" formed by theB-field lines for the bar magnet case? How about for a longstraight wire that's carrying a current?
Explanation / Answer
I read in my physics textbook that "Electric field lines can beginand end. They come out of positive charges and end at negativecharges. Magnetic field lines, however, don't begin or end. Theyalways form closed loops." I am confused. I need elaboration on this statement please. Whydoes the book's statement about electric field lines make sense?For the magnetic part: where is the "closed loop" formed by theB-field lines for the bar magnet case? How about for a longstraight wire that's carrying a current? the basic reason for this lies in the fact that we can have eitherpositive charge or negative charge accumulated separately on abody.where a s we cannot have either magnetic north pole or southpole separately. we cannot separate poles .they are alwaystogether.if we divide a bar magnet into two pieces the dividedpieces again consists of the two poles .this is possible towhatever extent we divide the bar magnet. that is why electric field lines start with positive charge and endwith negative charge (the reason for this lies in the basicdefinition of lines of force)but magnetic lines of force are alwaysclosed loops.