electrical fields (heads up, physics people)

[dean_r_koontz]

i'm going to check this out on my own, but if i don't find anything:

what is an electrical field? we discussed that during dinner because of an "illness" that apparently makes people sensitive to electrical stuff, like tvs etc. i said something like : isn't an electrical field made up of photons, so they shouldn't be able to walk out in the sun. and this dude who's an engineer specialisted in biochemistry said "no, it's just a field, there are no particles who creates the force".

who's right? i mentioned gravitrons as well, he said they didn't exist. i don't know if they exist or not so i said, oh ok.

[dean_r_koontz]

"Energy of e/m field is quantized (and quanta are called photons)."

from wikipedia. don't understand it though.

[Zorgon]

your biochem special engineer fucker is right, you know

[dean_r_koontz]

about gravitrons, photons or both?

[FlyinLo_DyinSlo]

when you figure this one out, let me know what a gravitational field is

[Zorgon]

actually, you make an interesting point about the sun. now i'm not sure anymore. physics sucks.

but i've never heard of an illness that makes people "sensitive to electrical stuff"
that kinda sounds like bologna

[dean_r_koontz]

"Photons transmit electromagnetic forces -- not gravity."

[dean_r_koontz]

Originally Posted by Zorgon

actually, you make an interesting point about the sun. now i'm not sure anymore. physics sucks.

but i've never heard of an illness that makes people "sensitive to electrical stuff"
that kinda sounds like bologna

it probably is and that's what i was saying.

[Zorgon]

but i suppose anything's possible.. there are people even allergic to water in this zainy world of ours

[dean_r_koontz]

that certainly sounds strange. any way, i just found out about something called virtual photons, which are used in quantum field theory, where you believe that forces are transmited through virtual particles. it's not like this field that is curved, it's a bunch of virtual particles, quantized, perhaps. i'd like devious j to come here and help me.

[bardy]

I didnt think photons were actual particles, just some sort of measurement

but sorry dude--I didnt have to take the second semester of physics

[DeviousJ]

I don't know a lot about this, the field description here seems like it might be more useful though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field

I don't know if I'd trust a biochemist especially, that includes one who says 'gravitons don't exist' (they're hypothetical and the theory has some issues in some situations, but they're not completely ruled out)

[dean_r_koontz]

thanks. you know, i just read on wikipedia that virtual photons are used to simplify calculations and to make stuff about fields more easy to describe to laymans. if that is true, it should mean that gravitrons are also virtual particles who're only used to explain and to help physicists calculate stuff. that means that i was WRONG!!!! on the other hand, i also read that ordinary particles are also just caused by disturbances in fields, so perhaps i was a little right. what kinds of fields would that be then? the gravitational field, the electromagnetic field (?) and -----> ?

[DeviousJ]

Well as far as I know, fields are just ways of saying STUFF BE HERE, amounts of force and energy present in space at any given time. The actual energy could be represented by photons or whatever, and the field describes where they are and how they're moving. Then again there's the whole wave-particle duality thing. Where's killed radio star when you need him?

[mxzombie]

Originally Posted by bardy

I didnt think photons were actual particles, just some sort of measurement

but sorry dude--I didnt have to take the second semester of physics

you only had to take one semester of physics? i have to take three