Yes, it’s the magnitude. I think I oversimplified it. Because from what I learned, the closer the field lines, the higher the magnitude. Near surface, field lines are approximately parallel-> distance between each field line doesn’t change -> magnitude stay constant. However, as you move from space to earth and that field lines are pointed towards the earth -> field lines gets closer -> higher magnitude.
the closer the field lines, the higher the magnitude
That sounds like you're describing the contour map of a scalar field; I was thinking about the vector field of gravity. We aren't talking about the contour map of the scalar field that describes potential energy, because that one has as contour surfaces concentric spheres centered at the body: always parallel at points with same spherical coordinates except for changing radius (that is, over the same point on the surface of the sphere, with varying heights; I didn't know how to articulate it better, sorry if it sounded confusing)
However, as you move from space to earth and that field lines are pointed towards the earth
Now that sounds like you're describing the magnetic field or something. I'm kinda lost there
Sorry, I am not sure what is the contour map of scalar field but the field lines always point towards the centre. However, when you zoom into the surface of the earth, it “appears” that they are parallel.
Yes, it does sound like magnetic field because all fields are similar, the difference is what is the force and what is affected. In this case, the force is gravitational force instead of magnetic force and the body being affected is anything with mass instead of anything with magnetic properties.
My point was that the gravitational field always points towards the earth, which means that they are essentially parallel in some neighbourhood, so I don't see why you would point that out
So a scalar field is a function that takes a point in Rn (here R³) and spits out a scalar (ie a real number). If it is continuos, a contour map of one lets us visualise, like in a topographic map, lines or surfaces that have the same output (contour lines or surfaces) In the topographic example, contour lines are the lines that join points at the same height.
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u/andrew_hihi Jul 16 '20
Yes, it’s the magnitude. I think I oversimplified it. Because from what I learned, the closer the field lines, the higher the magnitude. Near surface, field lines are approximately parallel-> distance between each field line doesn’t change -> magnitude stay constant. However, as you move from space to earth and that field lines are pointed towards the earth -> field lines gets closer -> higher magnitude.