Energy Density of Electric and Magnetic Fields
Electric and magnetic fields store energy. In a vacuum, the (volumetric) energy density (in SI units) is given by
where E is the electric field and B is the magnetic field. The solution will be in Joules per cubic metre. In the context of magnetohydrodynamics, the physics of conductive fluids, the magnetic energy density behaves like an additional pressure that adds to the gas pressure of a plasma.
In normal (linear) substances, the energy density (in SI units) is
where D is the electric displacement field and H is the magnetizing field.
Read more about this topic: Energy Density
Famous quotes containing the words energy, electric, magnetic and/or fields:
“Long before Einstein told us that matter is energy, Machiavelli and Hobbes and other modern political philosophers defined man as a lump of matter whose most politically relevant attribute is a form of energy called “self-interestedness.” This was not a portrait of man “warts and all.” It was all wart.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, outvalues all the theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Something told the wild geese
It was time to go.
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered—”Snow.””
—Rachel Lyman Field (1894–1942)