Electric Field Calculator

The electric field is a vector measured in newtons per coulomb that tells you the force per unit charge, while the potential is a scalar measured in volts that tells you the energy per unit charge.

The field weakens with the square of distance, so doubling the distance quarters it, while the potential weakens only with distance to the first power, so doubling the distance halves it.

A negative source charge produces a field that points toward it and a negative potential, the opposite of a positive charge of the same size.

Yes. One newton per coulomb equals exactly one volt per meter, so electric field strength can be quoted in either unit interchangeably. This calculator labels the field in N/C.

The field vector at any point lies along the straight line joining it to the charge: directly away from a positive charge and directly toward a negative one. Field lines are a drawing aid that trace these directions as continuous curves, beginning on positive charges and ending on negative ones, with the field strongest where the lines crowd closest together. For a single point charge the lines are straight radial spokes, and their spreading with distance is the geometric picture behind the inverse-square law.