sci.physics.electromag

"Benj" wrote in message
news:1dccbbe0-4aad-4560-854d-b81e09b0e0ad@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 5, 2:34 am, "FrediFizzx" wrote:
>
>> Well Maxwell, I certainly can feel magnetic fields (the resulting
>> forces) just by playing around with some magnets or even
>> electromagnets.
>> Ever stick a charged up balloon to your wall or feel the electric
>> field
>> from it attract your hair? There is absolutely no doubt in my mind
>> that
>> electric and magnetic fields exist so not just theory.
>
> Better re-think this Fred. Just because the FORCES are real, does not
> mean fields exist. Fields are simply a mathematical description of the
> force distributions. Like so much in modern physics today, it is
> mathematics that gives one the impression that it is explaining
> something when in fact it's just math. Therefore a "field" is just a
> mathematical system invented by some person. It is essentially
> imaginary. To be sure the forces and their distributions are real,
> and indeed those distributions may in fact more or less follow the
> results obtained by your mathematical "field theory", but to ascribe
> reality to a "field" is simply wrong. A field is only a model of
> reality, it in no way IS physical reality! Hence Electric and Magnetic
> FORCES exist, but FIELDS are just THEORY.

Sorry, but you will never ever convince me that electric and magnetic
"force fields" do not exist. I know from personal experience that
"force fields" do exist. I suspect you are getting caught up in some
kind of semantics game here.

Best,

Fred Diether
Co-moderator sci.physics.foundations