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What is a Scalar Field?

Scalar fields

One of the more difficult concepts we encounter in physics is the notion of a field. However it is an extremely useful concept. A scalar field is a mapover some space of scalar values. That is it is a map of values with no direction. A simple example of a scalar field is a map of the temperaturedistribution in a room. In this course the most important example is the electromagnetic potential field. Below are a few examples of graphicalrepresentations of one particular scalar field.

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Source:  OpenStax, Waves and optics. OpenStax CNX. Nov 17, 2005 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10279/1.33
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