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In electromagnetism, current density is the amount of charge per unit time that flows through a unit area of a chosen cross section. [1] The current density vector is defined as a vector whose magnitude is the electric current per cross-sectional area at a given point in space, its direction being that of the motion of the positive charges at this point.
A scalar field is a tensor field of order zero, [3] and the term "scalar field" may be used to distinguish a function of this kind with a more general tensor field, density, or differential form. The scalar field of ((+)) oscillating as increases. Red represents positive values, purple represents negative values, and sky blue represents ...
where this time is the charge density, is the current density vector, and is the current source-sink term. The current source and current sinks are where the current density emerges σ > 0 {\displaystyle \sigma >0} or vanishes σ < 0 {\displaystyle \sigma <0} , respectively (for example, the source and sink can represent the two poles of an ...
A scalar in physics and other areas of science is also a scalar in mathematics, as an element of a mathematical field used to define a vector space.For example, the magnitude (or length) of an electric field vector is calculated as the square root of its absolute square (the inner product of the electric field with itself); so, the inner product's result is an element of the mathematical field ...
Many times in the use and calculation of electric and magnetic fields, the approach used first computes an associated potential: the electric potential, , for the electric field, and the magnetic vector potential, A, for the magnetic field. The electric potential is a scalar field, while the magnetic potential is a vector field.
A field can be classified as a scalar field, a vector field, a spinor field or a tensor field according to whether the represented physical quantity is a scalar, a vector, a spinor, or a tensor, respectively. A field has a consistent tensorial character wherever it is defined: i.e. a field cannot be a scalar field somewhere and a vector field ...
The magnetic vector potential, , is a vector field, and the electric potential, , is a scalar field such that: [5] = , =, where is the magnetic field and is the electric field. In magnetostatics where there is no time-varying current or charge distribution , only the first equation is needed.
Often a vector field is drawn by curves (field lines) following the "flow"; the magnitude of the vector field is then the line density, and the flux through a surface is the number of lines. Lines originate from areas of positive divergence (sources) and end at areas of negative divergence (sinks).