Field

Field, in Physics, signifies any portion of space through which stress is transmitted. A book in the middle of a room possesses weight - that is, gravitational stress is transmitted mutually between the book and the earth. The space between is therefore part of the field of gravitation. A piece of iron brought near the poles of a magnet is acted on by a definite force; the iron is thus in a magnetic field. A field must evidently possess a medium for the transmission of the stress, either gravitational, magnetic, electric, or other. , This medium must exist even when all ordinary matter is absent. It is called the ether, and its properties are being gradually discovered by studying the nature of the stress, and of its transmission. [Ether.]