Electric fields

An electric field is created between charge carriers, when an electrical voltage is present due to electrical charge difference. This is also the case when no current flows. The electric field strength is given in units of volts per meter (V/m). It increases with higher voltage and decreases with growing distance from the source.

There are static and time-variant electric fields. Static electric fields (0 Hz) are present with direct current and in batteries. Alternating electric fields occur frequently in everyday life, e.g. with alternating current at a frequency of 50 Hz. This means that during 50 oscillations per second the electric field changes its direction 100 times.

Inhomogeneous electric field of a dipole