the.com/electric field
The invisible shove every charge feels in the presence of another, no touching required.
means A region of space around an electric charge where another charge would feel a push or pull, described by its strength and direction at every point.
from 'Electric' traces back to the Greek 'elektron,' meaning amber — ancient Greeks noticed that rubbed amber attracted light objects, a mystery that waited over two thousand years for Gilbert and others to name 'electricus' in the 1600s. 'Field,' originally just an open stretch of land, was borrowed by physicists in the 1800s — especially through Faraday's and Maxwell's work — to describe an invisible region of influence spreading through space, no soil required.
- defined as
- force per unit charge, newtons per coulomb
- speed
- changes propagate at the speed of light
- inside conductors
- always zero in electrostatic equilibrium
- visualized by
- field lines, denser where the field is stronger