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An electric field (sometimes called E-field [1]) is a physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles.In classical electromagnetism, the electric field of a single charge (or group of charges) describes their capacity to exert attractive or repulsive forces on another charged object.
As such, they are often written as E(x, y, z, t) (electric field) and B(x, y, z, t) (magnetic field). If only the electric field (E) is non-zero, and is constant in time, the field is said to be an electrostatic field. Similarly, if only the magnetic field (B) is non-zero and is constant in time, the field is said to be a magnetostatic field.
Electric field from positive to negative charges. Gauss's law describes the relationship between an electric field and electric charges: an electric field points away from positive charges and towards negative charges, and the net outflow of the electric field through a closed surface is proportional to the enclosed charge, including bound charge due to polarization of material.
An electric field is produced when the charge is stationary with respect to an observer measuring the properties of the charge, and a magnetic field as well as an electric field are produced when the charge moves, creating an electric current with respect to this observer. Over time, it was realized that the electric and magnetic fields are ...
The electric field E is defined such that, on a stationary charge: = where q 0 is what is known as a test charge and F is the force on that charge. The size of the charge does not really matter, as long as it is small enough not to influence the electric field by its mere presence.
Position vector r is a point to calculate the electric field; r′ is a point in the charged object. Contrary to the strong analogy between (classical) gravitation and electrostatics, there are no "centre of charge" or "centre of electrostatic attraction" analogues. [citation needed] Electric transport
Gauss's law in its integral form is particularly useful when, by symmetry reasons, a closed surface (GS) can be found along which the electric field is uniform. The electric flux is then a simple product of the surface area and the strength of the electric field, and is proportional to the total charge enclosed by the surface. Here, the ...
Thus, the electric field is a complete representation of the influence of the far-away charges. Alternatively, introductory treatments of magnetism introduce the Biot–Savart law, which describes the magnetic field associated with an electric current. An observer at rest with respect to a system of static, free charges will see no magnetic field.