What is a “field” in physics?

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I get that it’s values. It’s like, you assign a value to every point in space. But what “is” the electron field? It’s… what? I mean like a Kantian “field an sich”. Is the electron field the amount of electron-ness at a given point in space? What does that even mean beyond a calculation?

Are fields “real entities” with an objective physical reality? Or are they just mathematical abstractions that we use for calculation? Can you talk about fields without math? Does that even make sense? Like, I can talk about electrons without math. I can say they’re point particles that carry charge. But can you talk about the electron field outside of math? Or the EM field? Does it genuinely exist outside of an Electrodynamics calculation?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

>Can you talk about fields without math? Does that even make sense?

No, not really, it’s entirely a mathematical concept. Physics doesn’t quite try and explain what reality really is, more accurately it explains how reality behaves, using mathematical models.

If Newton treats forces as vectors, there is no such thing as a vector in a real world, it’s merely a mathematical concept. Same thing with fields.

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