What are similarities and differences between electric fields and magnetic fields?

Question

Basically, I'm looking for: what causes them, what they do to electrically charged particles, etc.

Feel free to list relevant equations such as the Lorentz Force.

Answer 1

The force from an electric field depends on the charge magnitude but not on its motion:  F = q*E.  The force acts in the same direction as the field.

The force from a magnetic field depends on the charge and its velocity and is in a direction at right angles to both: F = q*(B x V).  x is the vector cross product.

Electric fields are produced by static charges, while magnetic fields are produced by moving charges.  The field from a single static charge is E = K*q/r^2, where r is the distance from the charge and K the electric constant.  magnetic field from a charge q at velocity v is

B = Km*q*(V x r)/ r^2

Km is the magnetic constant.

In addition, electric field results from a time-changing magnetic field, and a magnetic field results from a time-changing electric field.

The entire situation is summed up in the Maxwell equations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_equ...