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One Plate |
Semicircle |
Triangle |
Two Plate |
Maxwell's Laws Tour
Lines Of Force
Micheal Faraday, in contrast to many other scientists of the time, was able to visualize the interaction of electrical elements by what he called "Lines of Force". He saw the force exerted by charges on eachother as invisible lines of force that reached out across space. These lines of force can be seen by some simple experiments. In the videos there are several different configurations of plates and a point charge (tip of an aligator clip). These are placed in a petre dish filled with oil and sprinkled with grass seed. As the plates are charged up the grass seed lines up with the electric field. Can you see Faraday's lines of force? Can you explain the shape of the electric field in each case?