It’s an invisible force field. Kind of like a gravitational field.
This is an over-simplification, but when you place a small object near Earth, the object falls toward earth, right? So on a piece of paper, you could draw the Earth, and then draw thousands of arrows pointing toward the Earth. Those arrows are invisible force lines. Objects will move along the lines toward Earth.[sup]1[/sup]
Same goes for an electric field. Let’s say Object A is positively charged. You could then draw (on paper) thousands of arrows pointing away from Object A. Those arrows are invisible force lines. If you place Object B - which is also positively-charged - near Object A, Object B will move along the arrows (i.e. it will move away from Object A). If you place Object C - which is negatively-charged - near Object A, Object C will move in the opposite direction of the arrows (i.e. it will move *toward *Object A). Those lines represent the electric field.
[sup]1[/sup] [sub]This is not actually correct; the object and the Earth are attracted to each other. I’m just glossing over a lot of details to keep the analogy simple.[/sub]
Well, not really. The mobile charges that exist in a wire are certainly electrons. But the mobile charges that exist in an electrochemical cell/battery are ions.
It is tempting to think of the electrons that are moving along the wire as “entering the battery’s positive terminal” and “exiting the battery’s negative terminal.” But that’s not what is really happening. No electrons flow through the battery.
Same goes for your body. If you get electrocuted, the electric current through your body is not comprised of electrons.
When trying to figure out how electrical circuits work, I find it simpler to think of current generically as “mobile charges” rather than mobile electrons.
Here’s another Bill Beaty articleon the subject. An electric field resembles a magnetic field. There’s just no convenient way to ‘see’ it, as with a magnetic field and iron filings. Your hair standing on end in a high voltage field is a close analog to the filings. Your hair is aligning with electrical lines of force, or trying to anyway.
Here’s an appletI found on Wikipedia. I don’t think it’s that helpful in understanding field basics, but it’s cool to watch.
Well, not actually on the subject, but close to it, and very close to me. That is because I cannot sleep, because of the full moon. I did not read the article and I don’t know what it is telling about, but my guess is that there are more positive ions because of the polarized light. Now, being a layman knowing almost nothing about everything I have to rely on my personal feelings. There is something in my blood that is attracted by these positive ions that keeps me awake. So there must be something negative. Usually I either drink a lot of alcohol or take acetylsalicylic acid - it works. These are both blood thinners and this has nothing to do on the subject here. And now after being medicated by the other I have no clue what I’m talking about. BUT THERE WAS A POINT WHEN I STARTED THIS…