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Electric field lines are a graphical representation of the electric field near a configuration of charge.

Here is the vector field diagram for the electric field around a dipole

and here is the corresponding electric field lines diagram.

Finally for another example, here are the field lines for two positive charges.

The field lines diagram are not just qualitative, the density of field lines measure the strength of the electric field (and indicates the direction). The number of field lines emanating from a charge is a measure of how strong that charge is. Here both point charges have equal number of lines going out of them. They have to be to equal charges.

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