Fields and forces are just a way of describing what happens to you when you are near certain things. If you are near something heavy you will be pulled towards it ( gravity). You can describe this a a force or say that you are in the gravitational field. A gravitational field is just somewhere where gravity “happens” – like the way a football field is somewhere footy happens..
The same goes for an electric force/field. You can use these descriptions to build up equations that can tell you where and how you move near something with mass or charge. These equations help us use electricity, and keep satellites in orbit.
That’s HOW it works, but I cant really answer WHY. hope that helps.
I don’t think that scientist really know how gravity works or what produces this force. It is the force that doesn’t fit in with all the other forces.
Your second question is quite complex, I’ll try my best to explain, and I hope I have the answer right…
Do you know the structure of an Atom,,, with electrons flying around the outside and in the middle is protons and neutrons. (look on google images if you can’t remember). Now protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively changed. If the number of protons in the middle is the same as the number of electrons flying around the outside, then the atom will be balanced and have no charge. They equal each other.
If you have more protons and fewer electrons then the atom will be positively charged.
If you have fewer protons and more electrons then the atom will be negatively charged.
Atoms don’t like to be un-balanced, they are always tying to have the same number of electrons and protons. So a positive and negative atom are going to be pulled together and they share the electrons to make both atoms equal.
Electric charge is the atoms trying to pull other atoms close to each other to share the electrons and become balanced.
You can imagine if you have a bar of metal and all the atoms in that bar are positively charged, there will be a strong field around It, If a negatively charged bar is placed close the atoms will pull together to balance themselves.
For someone that never studied physics formally (like me), these are hard questions for me to understand too. I think @Shona has done a better job of explaining electrical fields than I ever could. I also don’t think that physicists really understand why matter exerts gravitational force. I think this is where the theoretical particle, the Graviton comes into the conversation?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton
Fields and forces are just a way of describing what happens to you when you are near certain things. If you are near something heavy you will be pulled towards it ( gravity). You can describe this a a force or say that you are in the gravitational field. A gravitational field is just somewhere where gravity “happens” – like the way a football field is somewhere footy happens..
The same goes for an electric force/field. You can use these descriptions to build up equations that can tell you where and how you move near something with mass or charge. These equations help us use electricity, and keep satellites in orbit.
That’s HOW it works, but I cant really answer WHY. hope that helps.
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I don’t think that scientist really know how gravity works or what produces this force. It is the force that doesn’t fit in with all the other forces.
Your second question is quite complex, I’ll try my best to explain, and I hope I have the answer right…
Do you know the structure of an Atom,,, with electrons flying around the outside and in the middle is protons and neutrons. (look on google images if you can’t remember). Now protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively changed. If the number of protons in the middle is the same as the number of electrons flying around the outside, then the atom will be balanced and have no charge. They equal each other.
If you have more protons and fewer electrons then the atom will be positively charged.
If you have fewer protons and more electrons then the atom will be negatively charged.
Atoms don’t like to be un-balanced, they are always tying to have the same number of electrons and protons. So a positive and negative atom are going to be pulled together and they share the electrons to make both atoms equal.
Electric charge is the atoms trying to pull other atoms close to each other to share the electrons and become balanced.
You can imagine if you have a bar of metal and all the atoms in that bar are positively charged, there will be a strong field around It, If a negatively charged bar is placed close the atoms will pull together to balance themselves.
Oh, I’m getting confused myself…
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For someone that never studied physics formally (like me), these are hard questions for me to understand too. I think @Shona has done a better job of explaining electrical fields than I ever could. I also don’t think that physicists really understand why matter exerts gravitational force. I think this is where the theoretical particle, the Graviton comes into the conversation?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton
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