CPB - The Mechanical Universe…and Beyond (1986) Part 28 Static Electricity

The Mechanical Universe…and Beyond

This series helps teachers demystify physics by showing students what it looks like. Field trips to hot-air balloon events, symphony concerts, bicycle shops, and other locales make complex concepts more accessible. Inventive computer graphics illustrate abstract concepts such as time, force, and capacitance, while historical re-enactments of the studies of Newton, Leibniz, Maxwell, and others trace the evolution of theories. The Mechanical Universe helps meet different students' needs, from the basic requirements of liberal arts students to the rigorous demands of science and engineering majors. This series is also valuable for teacher professional development.

28 Static Electricity

At first glance, replacing the old idea of action at a distance by the new idea of the field of force seems to e an exercise in semantics. But it isn't, because fields have definite properties of their own suitable for scientific study. For example, electric fields are different in form from magnetic fields, and both kinds can better be understood by analogy to field of fluid flow.