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What is an electric field?


shekhar_dandya

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What is an electric field?
Is it matter?Does it have mass?
If no then how does it store energy in a capacitor?Since to store energy,there must be prescence of matter.
e.g:
If I lift a block of metal,energy is transffered from one matter(namely me)to another matter(namely block)and the block stores it as potential energy.
how do U explain it in terms of electric or magnetic fields?

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Guest Yevgenip

Well a capacitor works like this:

A Ceramic capacitor is composed of two parralel metal plates. When you charge one plate with electrons, a negative electric field is created. The second plate loses electrons (Since the capacitor is in a circuit) and a positive field is created.

The two field, co-existing, maintain the charged state and the capacitor stores energy.

About lifting the box, The only field involved here is the field of gravity, not electrical fields. (Magnetic Perhaps)?

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So,If we consider electrons as particles,then is the energy stored as potential energy in electrons?
When the battery pushes the electrons from the -ve terminal(i.e electrons start disssipiating their potential energy aquired from battery charging),those electrons gather on one plate of capacitor,increasing the charge of that plate.
Now what causes the electrons from other plate to travel to +ve terminal of the battery,which is in fact at lower potential?i.e how is potential difference established inside the capacitor?
Please,if whatever written above sounds too clumsy,provide me a simpler understanding of "how capacitor works" .Also invited,"how inductor works".
What makes capacitor store energy and resistor dissipiate the same energy?

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A gravitational field affects anything and everything made of physical matter it dosen't have to be charged or magnetized. An electric field is caused when two bodies have a potential differance i.e. one surplus electrons (is negitivly charged) and the other has an electron deficiency (is positivly charged). In this respect electrostatics is similar to magnets opposites attract and likes repel.

Electric fields and capacitors are all electrostatics so the following links might be useful.
Static electricity page
What is static electricity
How Capacitors Work
Van de Graff Generator

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Guest Yevgenip

My friend dE here says that electric fields are nothing but a term invented to describe the relationships between charged particles.

It is as real as the Earth's rotational axis.

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