Electric and Magnetic Fields - Essay Example

Electrical charges and magnets are found to exert forces upon distant objects, thereby altering the region of space surrounding them. The altered space becomes the force field eventually and through this effect, the body is able to respond to its local environment enabling distant objects to react across space by the nature of the forces caused by the fields. A magnet or an electric charge responds to the field made by the objects immediately within its reach. Equivalently, a massive object can establish a field of gravity upon which distant entities manage a certain degree of exertion.

Though magnetic fields function hand in hand with electric fields, specific properties distinguish one from the other. The notion of field lines and magnetic fields in existence was initially studied by the English scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) then further by James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), both of whom pioneered remarkable discoveries of electromagnetism in several aspects. Maxwell proposed that ‘if a changing magnetic field can make an electric field, then a changing electric field, as via an oscillating electric charge for instance, should make a magnetic field’.

Under these circumstances, the changing electric and magnetic fields would activate each other and move at a speed approaching the speed of light. Base on such grounds with empirical findings, Maxwell came up with the theory that light is an electromagnetic wave which was given proof by the experiments conducted after his time. Figure 1 - Electric Field (Red) and Magnetic Field (Blue) Since the electric power has been of chief significance to living, humans have engaged themselves into conception of possibilities to obtain higher potentials and benefits with electric and magnetic fields given constant exposure to them.

Scientists have long understood even during the 19th century that there exists special connection between electrical fields and magnetic fields which may be experienced everywhere on earth. Moving electric charge (electric current) can induce magnetic field. As such, coils of wire can serve as large electromagnets used in car junk yards in the same way that electric motors can be used to start a car engine or spin a computer’s hard disk. This phenomenon explicates as well how ordinary magnets are derived from tiny currents at the atomic level.

An electrical current or electric field is formed by an altering magnetic field which creates electromagnetic waves in the process. Power generator manufacturers utilize this principle to have large coils of wire bear the expected capacity of yielding magnetic field whether by falling water, wind, or steam by burning coal or oil, and even by through the heat coming from nuclear reactions whenever feasible. Audio and video tapes and compact disks, similarly, are capable of encoding information in magnetic patterns whereby magnetic directions and magnetic strengths are alternating.

When a magnetic disk or tape material happens to pass near wire coils of any size, electrical currents or fields are generated. Because magnetic fields are regions where an object exhibits magnetic influence, the same object acquires the potential to attract or repel a neighboring magnetic body along the magnetic field lines. It must be noted, however, that magnetic forces have nothing to do with gravity and the amount of gravity depends upon an object's mass whereas magnetic strength is a function