Definition:Electric Field Strength

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Definition

Electric field strength is the measure of the intensity of an electric field.

It is defined as:

$\mathbf E = \dfrac {\mathbf F} q$

where:

$\mathbf E$ denotes the electric field strength at a given point
$\mathbf F$ denotes the force exerted on a test charge $q$ by $\mathbf E$ at that point.


Electric field strength is a vector quantity.


Symbol

$\mathbf E$

The usual symbol used to denote electric field strength is $\mathbf E$.


Its $\LaTeX$ code is \mathbf E .


Dimension

Electric field strength has the dimension $\mathsf {M L T^{-3} I^{-1} }$.

This arises from its definition as:

force, with dimension $\mathsf {M L T}^{-2}$
per unit electric charge, with dimension $\mathsf {I T}$.


Units

The SI unit for electric field strength can be given either as:

volt per metre: $\mathrm V / \mathrm m$
newton per coulomb: $\mathrm N / \mathrm C$

The CGS unit of electric field strength is the electrostatic unit $\mathrm {e.s.u.}$.


Conversion Factors

\(\ds \) \(\) \(\ds 1\) e.s.u.
\(\ds \) \(=\) \(\ds 3 \times 10^4\) volts per metre


Also known as

Some sources give this as electric field intensity.


Also see

  • Results about electric fields can be found here.


Sources