A look into students’ interpretation of electric field lines

Abstract

This chapter is focused on learning different ways in which undergrad students in introductory Electricity and Magnetism (EM) courses interpret and use electric field lines diagrams to describe the electric field at any point in space. Due to its abstract nature, the electric field is a concept that tends to be misunderstood. Several representations of the electric field may have a different effect on the correct understanding of the electric field; such as the use of vectors and the electric field lines diagram. A correct interpretation of these representations should, theoretically, lead to a better understanding of the concept of electric field, and to a correct use of concepts such as the principle of superposition, electric force and repulsion. The problem that this research tackles is to identify how students interpret electric field lines, and what effect their interpretations may have on the conceptual understanding of the electric field.