What is an electric field "made of"?

Question

I understand it is a vector around a source charge but what is the field itself composed of?

If the field is just an area of influence how does the charge move from the source through the field so it can interact (exchange virtual photons) with another charge that comes within the field?

Was expecting the answer to lie outside of clasical physics.

Answer 1

I'll try to answer you by giving a very brief outline of quantum electrodynamics.

1) All photons in the universe are described by a single vector field A (whose derivatives, in the classical picture, yield the fields E and H)

2) All electrons and positrons in the universe are described by a single spinor field ψ.

3) The behavior of the two fields is governed by an equation which contains terms in A alone, describing the propagation of free photons, ψ alone, describing the propagation of free electrons, and a coupling term containing both fields.

4) This coupling term is what allows the electron field to "perturb" the photon field, and vice versa.

5) Feynman diagrams, which show electrons emitting and absorbing virtual photons, are basically shorthand for these "perturbations".

Answer 2

A field is simply the name and mathematical description we've given to "the tendency for a particle to feel a force in the presence of another particle".

For example, a positive charge exerts a force on another charged particle, even though they don't touch each other. We explain this by saying the first charge charge creates a "field" around itself, and the second charge, being in the field, feels a force. The field is simply the area of influence. It is not made of anything. You might be wondering what is transmitted between the particles to let one particle know it should feel a force. For the electric field, the answer is the gamma particle, written with the lowercase Greek letter gamma. It's also known as a photon.

Answer 3

Math. Seriously. The electric field is used to determine the force on a given test charge within the viciinity of another charged body. People who first worked with them, like Maxwell, Faraday, were instrumentalists, meaning they viewed the field as a mathematical construct to derive physical predictions. Nowadays, since the concept of a field is so useful, and been around for so long, it is now taught as a "real" thing, gauge invariance and the like cast aside.

If you are looking for an answer outside of classical physics, then you've already mentioned it. The electric force is mediated by photons.

Answer 4

The field is an electric field, which is one aspect of an electromagnetic field. It's not "made of" anything; it is what it is. Electromagnetism, along with gravity and the strong & weak nuclear forces, are the four fundamental forces of the Universe. Perhaps at extremely high energy levels they will turn out to be one and the same, but our technology has not reached the point where this is possible. For example, the largest particle accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN straddling the French/Swiss border, is 27km in diameter; I have heard that in order to unify the four fundamental forces we'd need an accelerator about as large as the orbit of Pluto.

Answer 5

You can think of the field as being "composed" of virtual photons, which are exchanged between any two electrically charged masses.

Answer 6

An electric field is equivalent to a temperature field .

Answer 7

I have a set of electronics books from the 1920s and they make several guesses about what it is.
they also have some very simple electrostatic experiments that involve electrostatic induction and taking apart a capacitor while charged, and
modern electrostatic laws are violated by these simple experiments,
so, I know that modern physics has it wrong,
don't get me wrong, modern physics has it close, but misses some VERY big things when charged electrostatic fields start moving.
I do not think anyone knows this answer for sure.

I think the answer of "math" is the closest thing you will find unless you try some experiments to figure it out,
but like I said, the current equations do not model reality correctly.

Answer 8

hi
i will explain u what electric field is made up of...

For that we need to go back to the basic definition .....

ELECTRIC FIELD

Electric field is defined as the electric force per unit charge.

The direction of the field is taken to be the direction of the force it would exert on a positive test charge.

The electric field is radially outward from a positive charge and radially in toward a negative point charge.


WELL,
that was the definition...but elctric field consists of electric field lines............

Electric field lines are the imaginary lines which provides a means to visualize the electric field. Since the electric field is a vector, electric field lines have arrows showing the direction of the electric field. As two examples, we show the electric field lines of a single point charge, and of a positive and negative charge.

T
he following rules apply to electric field lines:

Lines begin and end only at charges (beginning at + charges, ending at - charges) or at Infinity.

Lines are closer together where the field is stronger.

Larger charges have more field lines beginning or ending on them.

Electric Field lines never cross (since E must point in a definite direction unless it is zero).

At any location, the direction of the electric field is tangent to the electric field line that passes through that location.

To understand electric field lines more deeply and experimenting it....ther are computer java programs...u can test on


http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~phys1/java/phys1/EField/EField.html

and

http://surendranath.tripod.com/Applets/Electricity/FieldLines/FieldLinesApplet.html

they will clear ure concepts for sure...........
all the best............
hope this is the best answer uve got............

Answer 9

probably easier to understand that it effects things that it comes into contact with and therefore it exists, than to get a definition of what it is which you probably wouldn't understand.
think of it like gravity, but funnily enough you wouldnt ask the same question for that?
the answers you will probably get are complex answers that fail to answer your question so I would just stick with above, and get more information on what it does so that you can answer this for yourself.

good luck

Answer 10

Your use of quotes around "made of" means, in this context, that the literal meaning of "made of" is not intended. This betrays the fact that you already know at some level that the question itself is of dubious literal meaning. I would encourage you to let that little voice inside of you speak a bit louder and listen to what it has to say.