# Electric Fields

1. Aug 5, 2005

### Neuronic

I'm trying to understand the concept of the Electric Field. Is it a force itself? Or its some abstract piece of energy that generates a force?

I don't really get how its different from a force. Isn't it referred to as a "force field"?

2. Aug 5, 2005

### TD

As far as I know, it's not exactly a force.
An E-field is defined as followed:
$$\vec E \equiv \mathop {\lim }\limits_{q_0 \to 0} \frac{{\vec F}}{{q_0 }}$$

Here is $q_0$ a test charge and $\vec F$ the electric force.
Therefore, an E-field is a force per charge so in N/C.

Since I didn't really know how to explain you this further, here's a quote from the Wikipedia: "an electric field or E-field is an effect produced by an electric charge that exerts a force on charged objects in its vicinity.".

Hope that helps

Last edited: Aug 5, 2005
3. Aug 6, 2005

### marlon

Scroll down to the https://www.physicsforums.com/journal.php?s=&action=view&journalid=13790&perpage=10&page=7 entry. The answers to your questions are all in it

marlon

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 21, 2017