Field line
Visual aid to depiction of a vector field / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the modern use of "field lines" as a way to depict electromagnetic and other vector fields. For the role of these lines in the early history and philosophy of electromagnetism, see Line of force.
A field line is a graphical visual aid for visualizing vector fields. It consists of an imaginary integral curve which is tangent to the field vector at each point along its length.[1][2] A diagram showing a representative set of neighboring field lines is a common way of depicting a vector field in scientific and mathematical literature; this is called a field line diagram. They are used to show electric fields, magnetic fields, and gravitational fields among many other types. In fluid mechanics, field lines showing the velocity field of a fluid flow are called streamlines.