The electric field is defined as the force per unit charge exerted on a small positive test charge placed at that point. The rules for drawing electric field lines for any static configuration of charges are The lines begin on positive charges and terminate on negative charges. The number of lines drawn emerging from or […] Since equipotential lines are always perpendicular to field lines, the equipotentials for the parallel plate capacitor must lie parallel to the plates. Consider the bottom plate where V = -5 V. The plate itself is an equipotential surface: the whole thing is at the same potential of -5 V. But that would mean there had to be an electric field. There is no electric field. So that means that the surface of a good conductor is an equipotential region. Equi, meaning equal and potential meaning potential. Alright. So, when I have an equipotential surface, the electric field must be perpendicular to that surface. We also know the electric field lines are always perpendicular to the equipotential surfaces, therefore these angles are 90 degrees for these equipotential surfaces they have the voltage of let's say v1, v2, v3, and so on and so forth. Let's assume that we move our charge from one equipotential surface...Jan 05, 2012 · Aren't "field lines" and "equipotential lines" a figment of human imagination? :>) In other words, there is *no* particular number of them in a specified space. Nor is there a specified number of one related to the other; the only relationship I know. between these two imaginary lines is that they are perpendicular to each other.