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An electric field (sometimes called E-field [1]) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles.Charged particles exert attractive forces on each other when their charges are opposite, and repulse each other when their charges are the same.
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 ...
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. However, if either the electric or magnetic field has a time-dependence, then both fields must be ...
As the electric field is defined in terms of force, and force is a vector, having both magnitude and direction, it follows that an electric field is a vector field. [25]: 469–70 The study of electric fields created by stationary charges is called electrostatics. The field may be visualised by a set of imaginary lines whose direction at any ...
In electromagnetism, electric flux is the total electric field that crosses a given surface. [1] The electric flux through a closed surface is equal to the total charge contained within that surface. The electric field E can exert a force on an electric charge at any point in space. The electric field is the gradient of the electric potential.
Two such force fields are a gravitational field and an electric field (in the absence of time-varying magnetic fields). Such fields affect objects because of the intrinsic properties (e.g., mass or charge) and positions of the objects.
Electric field lines are useful for visualizing the electric field. Field lines begin on positive charge and terminate on negative charge. They are parallel to the direction of the electric field at each point, and the density of these field lines is a measure of the magnitude of the electric field at any given point.
It describes the electric field produced by charged particles and by charge distributions. According to Gauss's law, the flux (or flow) of electric field through any closed surface is proportional to the amount of charge that is enclosed by that surface. [9] [10] This means that the greater the charge, the greater the electric field that is ...