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How would you determine the electric field from Maxwell's equations? One of my friends was asked this when he went for a Master's interview. Thanks.
Hi, He was given the third Maxwell equation in differential form and asked how he would find the Electric field. Sorry I can't give you much to go on.Ahmad Kishki said:This is a very vague and open ended question. What other details are given?
An electric field is a physical field that is created by electrically charged particles. It is a vector field, meaning that it has both magnitude and direction, and is responsible for the attraction or repulsion of charged particles.
The electric field can be calculated using Maxwell's equations, which are a set of equations that describe the behavior of electric and magnetic fields. Specifically, the electric field can be calculated using Gauss's law, which states that the electric flux through a closed surface is proportional to the enclosed charge.
The units of an electric field are newtons per coulomb (N/C) in the SI system. This means that for every unit of charge (coulomb) in the field, there is a corresponding force (newton) acting on it.
An electric field can interact with other objects in a few different ways. If the object has a charge, it will experience a force in the direction of the field. If the object is a conductor, the charges within the object will redistribute to create an opposite field, resulting in no net force. If the object is an insulator, the charges within the object will not be able to move, but the electric field can still cause a polarization of the material.
Electric fields have many practical applications in daily life. Some examples include: the operation of electronic devices such as TVs and computers, the functioning of power lines and electrical grids, and the attraction/repulsion of charged particles in chemical reactions. Electric fields are also used in medical equipment such as MRI machines and defibrillators.