哈里德 物理学基础 学习指导 22 electric fields.pdf

Chapter 22 Electric Fields In mathematics, a field means that at each point in space there is a vector. Imagine walking around and measuring the normal force that the ground puts on you. On flat ground the force would be the same as your weight and upward (since there are no other forces and no acceleration). On a hillside, the normal force would be tilted, so that it was perpendicular to the hill's surface. This set of vectors would be a field. Imagine taking a single charge and moving it around among other charges, and at each point you measure the electric force on your charge. The set of vectors, one for every point in space, is a field. Imagine now that you repeat the process, but with a greater charg€, twice as big. At each point, the force that each other charge creates would be twice as big, so the total force would be twice as big. If you switched the sign of your charge, all of the forces would switch direction, so the total force would switch direction. The force on your charge is proportional to the amount of charge you use. One way to think about electric field is that it is the force you would have on a charge if there was a charge there. The field exists whether there is a charge there or not. So the units of electric field are newtons of force for each coulomb of charg€, or N/C. A 3 C charge in a 4 N/C field experiences a force of 12 N. A point in space has an electric field, and a charge at that point experiences a force from the electric field. In the previous chapter we had charges creati.rg forces on other charges. That was a simplification. Charges create electric field, and electric field creates forces on charges. Q-E-F Each of these steps produces a vector, either field or force. For each step, we need a way to determirre the direction of the vector and an equation to determine the magnitude of the vect