An electric field generally varies in space, and its quality at any one point is characterized as the force that would be felt by a stationary, immaterial charge whenever placed at that point The conceptual charge, named a 'test charge', must be vanishingly small to avert its very own electric field irritating the main field and should also be stationary to avoid the impact of magnetic fields. As the electric field is characterized as far as force, and force is a vector, so it pursues that an electric field is also a vector, having both magnitude and course. Specifically, it is a vector field. The field lines are the paths that a point positive charge would try to make as it was forced to move inside the field; they are anyway an imaginary idea with no physical presence, and the field permeates all the mediating space between the lines.
An empty directing body carries all its charge on its external surface. The field is therefore zero at all places inside the body. This is the operating principal of the Faraday cage, a directing metal shell which isolates its interior from outside electrical impacts. The investigation of electric fields created by stationary charges is called electrostatics. The field may be visualized by a lot of imaginary lines whose bearing at any point is the same as that of the field. This idea was presented by Faraday, whose term 'lines of force' still in some cases sees use. Field lines emanating from stationary charges have several key properties: first, that they originate at positive charges and terminate at negative charges; second, that they should enter any great conductor at right angles, and third, that they may never cross nor close in on themselves.