An electric field is a physical field that surrounds any charged object or collection of charged objects. It is a vector field, meaning it has both a magnitude and a direction at every point in space. The electric field is created by the presence of electric charges and is defined as the force per unit charge experienced by a test charge placed at a particular point in the field.
The electric field is described mathematically by Coulomb’s Law, which states that the magnitude of the electric field at a given point in space is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge creating the field and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charge and the point. The electric field is typically measured in volts per meter (V/m).
The electric field has many applications in technology, including electric motors, generators, and electronic devices. It is also essential in the understanding of electromagnetic waves and the behavior of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields.