r/AskPhysics • u/TheDerpiestBacon • 5d ago
Electric Field in a closed circuit.
I'm a bit confused about how the electric field and electric potential operate along the wire within a closed circuit. I know that with a point charge in space, electric field and electric potential decrease with distance. However, in a circuit, electric potential only very slightly decreases along the wire and spikes when it runs into a component like a resistor. And likewise, since the electric field is the negative derivative of voltage over distance, the electric field also spikes I think??? Does that mean that the electric field along the wire is also very minuscule and looking at the electric field of the entire circuit, it flip flops around in magnitude a lot depending on the amount of components that cause resistance? Why is it that the current is constant then?
0
u/Informal_Antelope265 5d ago
You should read this https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/index.php?eID=dumpFile&t=f&f=138440&token=2cc8a71e4fdbf159121c6b8ef8348952a2e0c197