Did physicist create the concept of electric field to describe the interaction of charge particles at a distance? If they are real, do we have experimental evidence? Please describe some of them. And what about other fields like gravitational field?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
7
-
9$\begingroup$ What does "really exist" mean precisely? It's philosophy, not physics! $\endgroup$– D. HalseyCommented Aug 25, 2021 at 13:35
-
$\begingroup$ I have no opinion as to whether or not they are real, but it is certainly extremely useful to think of them as real! $\endgroup$– AndrewCommented Aug 25, 2021 at 13:36
-
$\begingroup$ see also What is a field, really? $\endgroup$– Paul T.Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 13:38
-
$\begingroup$ Another related question: Significance of electric field $\endgroup$– Mark HCommented Aug 25, 2021 at 13:40
-
1$\begingroup$ Well, are elementary particles real or did physicists create the concept to describe subatomic behavior? Experimental evidence doesn't prove that our descriptions of various aspects of reality are what the underlying reality really is, only that predictions (computed behaviors/consequences) of those descriptions are consistent with what's observed. In other words, it's real in the sense that it captures something true, some facet of the underlying reality, and you can never do better than that. See: youtube.com/watch?v=0KmimDq4cSU $\endgroup$– Filip MilovanovićCommented Aug 25, 2021 at 16:02
|
Show 2 more comments
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
In order for electric fields to be real, we maybe would need electric charges and geometric points to be real. So it is probably a model, but we can't really know for sure and math by itself cannot prove whether these concepts are real or not.
