Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) have some special physic properties which may own important technical values. We studied the electric characteristics of metallic carbon nanotubes including potential distribution, surface charge distribution and tip electric field based on electromagnetic theory. Our results show that the relative values of tip charge densities of short CNTs are bigger and so are the absolute values for long CNTs. We also find the electric field at the tips of metallic nanotubes is much bigger than external electric field. This is helpful for exploring theoretical problems about CNTs' field emission.