Slide 4 of 11
Notes:
In this example, we represent the field by colored arrows with origins at the point where the field is computed and pointing in the direction of the field there. The arrows are color-coded to represent the relative magnitudes of the field values, with green and blue strongest and yellow the weakest -- red brown and orange in between. The overall effect is a kind of image that let’s us visualize the field and conceptualize how it behaves around charges.
Except for absolute field magnitude, it doesn’t matter what the actual values of the charges are because the field pattern will be the same. That is, we can thing of these three charges as being 2.0 Coul, -1.0 Coul and -1.0 Coul, OR 4.0 microCoul, -2.0 microCoul and -2.0 microCoul; the field pattern will look the same in any case.
