Sunday, July 10, 2016

1. The Electric Field

Long before Star Trek, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) came up with the idea of an electric "field of force." James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79) saw that field as the space around an electrified object.

Daniel Fleisch, my superb guide for these forty days, describes an electric field as "the electrical force per unit charge exerted on a charged object" (3). So you might think of it as the number of newtons of electrical force on each coulomb of charge at a location.

So here's the relationship:

The electric field, a vector is the electric force per charge. You might think of a field as a series of imaginary electric lines that originate on a positive charge and terminate in the negative charge. The net electric field at any point is the vector sum of all electric fields at that point. Electric field lines never cross. Electric field lines are perpendicular to the surface of the conductor.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Not Another Blog!

Yes, Yes, I know. I have way too many blogs. If it makes it any better, I exported and deleted one before starting this one. And I don't plan to advertise it. Only those who go snooping around my dashboard will find it (yes, this means you).

If I don't have a schedule, I just will continue to drop this non-part of my life. I'm content to say, "Yeah, I'll pick up piano again when I retire." But I just have to refresh the science and math now because my brain is oozing away in mid-life.

Baby Steps, Baby Steps. I have plenty of math and science books lying around the house, everything from Quantum Physics textbooks to Relativity. I must have about 4 or 5 different Calculus textbooks alone. But it's not in my brain!!!

I start with Lee Smolin's book Trouble with Physics...