Electric field is a force produced by a charge near its surroundings. This force is exerted on other charges when brought in the vicinity of this field.
- SI unit of electric field is N/C (Force/Charge).
- Electric field due to a charge at a point is the force that a unit positive charge would experience if placed at that point.
- The charge generating electric field is called source charge and the charge which experiences this field is called test charge. Practically, to keep source charge undisturbed due to the electric field of test charge, the test charge is kept infinitely small.
- Since F(Force) is proportional to q (Charge), the electric field is independent of q but depends on r (space coordinates).
- The electric field is symmetric in spherical coordinates.
- The concept of Electric field is used to account for the time delay for a charged body to experience force from the field of a source charge.
