A Rational Cosmology: The Model of Force Fields

A common proposition put forth by physicists with regard to many fundamental forces which occur at a distance, be they gravitational, electrical, or magnetic, is the idea of a "field" created by an entity which is capable of exerting a certain type of force.

When interpreted correctly, this idea is quite useful and cosmologically correct, yet great mistakes have been made with regard to it, especially by empiricist-positivist post-Classical physicists who have decided to ignore philosophy and treat fields in a manner that yields evident logical contradictions.

The mistakes in the interpretation of fields are fundamentally philosophical, yet they have resulted in whole absurd physical theories, including scores of imaginary massless particles thought to be responsible for certain types of fields, invisible lines which cover all of the universe and are more than the paper models they ought to be, and the multiply flawed idea that a single electric charge somewhere can instantaneously bring about a change in the entire "universal fabric."

Before discussing what a field is not, however, we should first discover what a field is. A hint to the answer can be found in the fact that the common derivation of the very concept involves the use of a "test particle," either of a given unit mass or a given unit charge, which is placed a certain distance from a force-exerting entity.

The force exerted upon the test particle at this position becomes known as the strength of the field at said position. That is, the electric field idea merely concisely expresses the knowledge that for every unit of mass, charge, etc., at this location, a force of X Newtons will be experienced, where X becomes the magnitude of the field.

The direction of the field is also derived by examining the nature of a given test particle. All gravitational forces attract; thus, any test particle's direction in a gravitational field will be toward the other massive entity.

For electric fields, the test particle is assigned a charge, usually positive, and the behavior of a particle so charged then becomes the convention for which way an electric field will be directed at any given location. Thus, the direction of the electric field at a given point is merely the direction in which a particle with the same nature as the test charge will accelerate when a force is exerted upon it at the point. There is nothing here which requires defining the field as an entity in itself.

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