Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Force Fields

How are force fields made and how can they be useful? electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields.... Can someone tell me how to make a simple one (magnetic maybe)?

How old are you?

Forcefields as the term is used in Science Fiction simply do not exist at present. All electromagnetic forces exist create magnetic fields as a side effect. Just running electricity through a wire creates one. Carrying this to its practical uses, this is how electromagnetics are made which create an electromagnetic field strong enough for various industrial purposes.

Making gravitational fields is another science fiction idea. If we could do that, we could make anti-gravity and be free of the gravity well, opening up space. Gravity remains something of a mystery. As far as I know gravitons have not been detected yet. Gravity is either a particle, a wave, a wavicle or an artifact of space time curvature created by mass. It is still being debated.

Electromagnetism is fairly well understood these days. Electricity moves in currents, electromagnetism occurs in fields. It is a force, and a field, but not much of a force field. I hope this clarifies things.

I'm 13 years old. Can u give me your ideas on the topic please?

Thank you Arrogathor

A force field has magnitude and direction associated with its every contained point. That is the whole of it. If you want a deeper understanding you must have greater knowldedge of physics (the four fundamental forces) and mathematics (scalars and vectors) - and that is just for starters. Things of value require work to achieve.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/wavpart3.html

The meaning is in the mathematics. Science fiction is exactly that - fiction. It develops plot generally without respect for the rigorous physics. This is not a bad thing, for discovery comes forth from new ideas. However, physcal theory may not be falsified by empirical (look it up) observation. Any theory whose prediction does not match observation is wrong.

If that last sentence is personally burdensome, go for religion wherein everything is correct by faith. I'll flush a toilet; you believe with all your heart that the stuff will miraculously disappear, some day. The whole of Europe once took the latter path. It was called the Dark Ages and it stank (as the whole of India stinks today, literally).

Well, although what you say is correct, it may not accurately answer his question.

If instead of a force-field, goofkid means an invisible or transparent 'sheild' of some type, then such things DO exist.

A faraday cage is a way to screen out stray electromagnetic radiation, usually microwaves or radiowaves. Essentially its a wire mesh. Your micro-wave oven has one of these in the glass of the door (metal screen with holes in it).

There are also mu metal cages which can 'block' magnetic fields also. Actually they work by inducing a magnetic field with opposite sign to the intruding field which is being blocked, so there is no net field.

However, you can walk right through such mu metal cages as the gaps between the metal coils can be large. However, to a magnetic field the cage would act like a real barrier.

Even ordinary glass is a sheild of some kind. It blocks objects with mass, such as water, air molecules, hands, etc, and it also blocks some radiation (UV, IR), but it passes visible light right through.

So it depends what you're trying to block with a 'force field'. If you're trying to block visible light, you'd pick one kind of sheild. If you're trying to block magnetic fields, you'd pick another, if you're trying to block longer wavelength light (radio/microwave) you'd pick a different kind of sheild.

If you're trying to block physical objects, like a baseball, then you need to put a physical sheild in the way. Or you can get tricky and ionize the baseball (put a charge on it) and deflect it using voltages on metal plates. Electrons are accelerated in a cathode ray tube (old-style TV set) by a similar effect. By putting a metal plate in the way of a beam of electrons, and by holding it at a high enough voltage, electrons can be 'deflected' without ever touching anything. They can also be deflected by putting a magnetic field nearby.

You should also explain that the reason 'gravity' force-fields don't seem to exist is that it is very likely that gravity is not a 'force'. Einstein conceived it as a kind of illusion caused by the bending of space-time itself from the effects of local mass. Others have sought to explain gravity as a very slight imbalance between +ve and -ve electromagnetic forces. The fact we can't block out or negate the gravitational 'field' like every other field is the strongest argument in favour of General Relativity or some theory like it.

Force is the rate of change of potential over time...
There is no force field as such .. but only potential fields....and time...
The interaction between potential fields results in changes perceived as Force(and can be related to a mathematical formula)....
Two particles can never live without interaction of their potentials and hence Force will always be there as a derivative of potential...
It can be concluded that it is impossible to isolate a particle which has no influence on another particle...
And without diluting the importance of Force ... allow me to tell you that potential is more fundamental than Force...
So kid understand the potential first then you will understand the Force...
at 13 you have tremendous potential and your interaction with others will result in changes which may be defined as your ability to exert force on the World Memory...
BTW
As far India goes it stinks externally but is pure inside like a child... And I am not saying this because I am from India .. I am saying this because I have lived in India.

First let me say that I am very surprised and humbled to find a 13 year old who is asking this kind of question.

Second, I studied through QM at university and some of the same questions you ask on this group are questions that bothered me when I was studying physics. (My masters was in Engineering Math and Computer Science, but we were required to take "Modern Physics", among other things.)

Third, despite the fact that I don't think I can give you a better answer than those already supplied to you, I hope you will not be discouraged. Keep your questions. Keep whatever skepticism you have. Let it haunt you.

Do I correctly infer that you are in 8th grade? One problem is that you don't have the necessary background to understand an answer. Another is that the only answers I could give you are redundant or circular. (I should have been a physics major instead!)

In any case, you should seriously consider now the course of your mathematical education. You need to get into algebra as quickly as possible. Do not shoot for As. Shoot for absolute mastery and domination of the subject. Then plan the rest of your math courses - alg II, geometry, trig, etc.

You'll learn a lot of cool and relevant stuff in calc 3 and particularly in a DE (differential equations) course. But plan it out. You need to think it through in advance.

But most importantly - hypothesize (formally) and be explicit about what you expect from affirmative and negative responses.

good luck.