Electric Field Unit

Electric Field

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1 The electrostatic Force
2 Coulomb's Law
3 Positive and Negatives charges
4 Electric field. Electric Field lines of Force
5 The electric field Unit
6 Biasing of a conductive material

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This article is part of the following tutorial >>

The unit of the electric field could be easily deduced from the following formula:

The electric field is the quotient of an electrostatic force F and of an electric charge Q. It has the unit of Newton / Coulomb

To obtain the unit of electric field we can use other values, which can help us to make the electric field concept clearer.

An F force will be applied on a charge that is placed on an electric field E.

Now, if this charge is moved from point A to point B on the opposite direction of the force, an amount of work (W) will be done.

This work is defined as:

W = Fxd = QxExd

F = Q x E (clearing up F from the formula that appears at the top).

From the last formula we obtain: W/Q = Exd.

The Exd expression is called potential difference between the points A and B, and it is represented as V_AB. Then V_AB = Exd.

Solving the last equation to the electric field (E) we obtain:

E = VAB/d and the unit is: volts/meter