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An electric field is a region around a charged object where other charged objects experience a force. Free GCSE AQA Physics notes and 13 questions answered.
Introducing Electric Fields is part of Static electricity (physics only) in GCSE AQA Higher Physics.
4 min
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GCSE AQA Higher
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An electric field is a region around a charged object where other charged objects experience a force. Free GCSE AQA Physics notes and 13 questions answered.
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Use this lesson to stay inside Static electricity (physics only) while connecting the detail back to the wider Electricity topic.
Read the core explanations from Introducing Electric Fields before testing yourself from memory.
Rub a balloon on your hair and watch it pick up tiny pieces of paper. The balloon isn't touching the paper, yet something invisible reaches out and grabs it. That 'something' is an electric field — a zone of influence that surrounds every charged object.
Think of it like the smell from a bakery. You can't see the smell, but you know it's there because you can detect it. The closer you get to the bakery, the stronger the smell becomes. Electric fields work the same way — they're invisible regions around charged objects that get stronger as you move closer.
Here's the key insight: a charged object doesn't just sit there doing nothing. It creates an invisible 'zone of influence' all around itself. Any other charged object that enters this zone will feel a push or pull — that's the electric field at work.
The field strength follows a simple rule: **the closer you get to the charged object, the stronger the field becomes**. Move twice as far away, and the field gets much weaker. This is why that balloon loses its grip on paper as you pull it away.
Since electric fields are invisible, scientists use **field lines** to show where they are and how strong they are. Think of these lines as the 'flow pattern' of the electric field — like drawing the current in a river.
The pattern follows two crucial rules. First, field lines always point **away from positive charges** and **towards negative charges**. Second, where the lines are bunched together, the field is strong. Where they spread out, the field is weak.
For an isolated charged sphere — imagine a charged metal ball floating in space — the field lines radiate outward in all directions like spokes on a wheel. Close to the sphere, the lines are packed tightly together. Further away, they spread out and the field weakens.
When examiners ask you to draw electric field patterns, they're testing whether you understand how fields behave. Let's master the technique for an isolated charged sphere.
Worked example: Drawing Electric Field Lines for a Charged Sphere
Draw the electric field pattern around a positively charged metal sphere.
Answer: A radial pattern with lines pointing outward from the sphere, closely spaced near the surface and spreading out with distance.
**Trap**: Many students draw field lines that cross each other or curve back towards the charge. Field lines never cross (that would mean the field points in two directions at once) and they never curve back to the same charge.
Electric fields aren't just exam theory — they explain everyday phenomena. When you get a shock from a door handle, you're experiencing the electric field around static charge built up on your body. Lightning is nature's most dramatic example of electric fields in action.
The field concept also explains why pointed objects (like lightning rods) are so effective. The field lines bunch up at sharp points, creating incredibly strong fields that can ionise the air itself. This is why lightning rods work — they create such strong fields that they 'attract' the lightning strike.
Electric field questions appear regularly in GCSE physics papers. Examiners love testing whether you can explain the concept clearly and draw accurate field patterns. Here's how to nail these questions every time.
**Common exam mistake**: Students often say 'electric fields only exist when another charge is present to feel them'. Wrong! The field exists around every charged object whether or not anything else is there to detect it. The field is a property of the charged object itself.
Published by Revise Right. Use the official specification reference to check the requirements for your course. Content updated: 2026-03-20.
Move to the related lessons or back to the topic page when you need the wider sequence before exam-style practice.
An electric field is a region around a charged object where other charged objects experience a force. The field exists even when no other charges are present to feel it, and it gets stronger closer to the charged object.
The electric field pattern for an isolated charged sphere is radial: straight field lines radiate outward in all directions like spokes on a wheel. The lines are closely spaced near the surface, where the field is strong, and spread out with distance, and for a positive sphere the arrowheads point away from it.
Electric field lines are imaginary lines that show the direction and strength of an electric field. They point away from positive charges and towards negative charges, and they are bunched together where the field is strong and spread out where it is weak.
Electric field lines always point away from positive charges and towards negative charges. Where the lines are bunched together the field is strong, and where they spread out the field is weak.
Electric field lines never cross, because that would mean the field points in two directions at once. They also never curve back to the same charge; drawing crossing lines is a common exam mistake.
Lightning rods work because field lines bunch up at sharp points, creating incredibly strong electric fields that can ionise the air itself. This strong field at the pointed rod is why it 'attracts' the lightning strike.
Draw a circle marked with + signs, then draw straight lines radiating outward in all directions like spokes on a wheel, with arrowheads pointing away from the positive charge. The lines are close together near the sphere and spread out further away.
Electric field strength gets weaker with distance from a charged object: the closer to the object, the stronger the field. Field lines spread out further from an isolated charged sphere, showing the field weakening, which is why a charged balloon loses its grip on paper as it is pulled away.
Field lines close together mean the electric field is strong, and field lines spread out mean the field is weak. Around a charged sphere, the lines are packed tightly near the sphere and spread out further away as the field weakens.
Electric field lines point towards a negative charge and away from a positive charge. Arrowheads on the lines show the direction of the field, and the lines are closer together near the charge, where the field is stronger.
An electric field exists around every charged object whether or not another charge is there to detect it. The field is a property of the charged object itself, so saying a field only exists when another charge is present is a common mistake.
A charged balloon picks up tiny pieces of paper without touching them because it is surrounded by an electric field, an invisible zone of influence around every charged object. The field is stronger close to the balloon, so it loses its grip as it is pulled away.
Common mistakes when drawing electric field lines are drawing lines that cross each other or curve back towards the charge. Field lines never cross, because that would mean the field points in two directions at once, and they never curve back to the same charge.