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Do field lines ever cross? Why?

User Kimchi Man
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1 Answer

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19 votes

No, field lines never cross. This happens due to the very nature of field lines. We use them as an abstraction which shows us the direction of a vector field. If we think about an electric field, for example, we have situations such as the following

This indicates which direction a positive particle would go to, if placed on this field. If we had two lines crossing, it would mean that for a single point in space the particle would go to two different directions, which is not possible. This example is shown in the next drawing

From a different approach, if we think of field lines as a vector function for every point in space

Do field lines ever cross? Why?-example-1
Do field lines ever cross? Why?-example-2
User Jdgregson
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