Radios, cellphones, garage door openers, many televisions and radio controlled toys use electric fields to communicate.

The electric fields do not exist inside of a sealed container that is made of a conducting material.The do exist inside of a sealed container that is made from an insulating material. A sealed container made from a conducting material is called a "Faraday Cage." Faraday cages block electric fields from entering the"cage." Much more detail is covered in the class notes -online.

Fish, some amphibians, and three mammals possess a sixth sense called electroreception. Electroreception allows an animal to perceive electric fields. Electroreceptors allow these animals to sense the electric fields in other animals. To sense the electric fields of others, these animals need to be in a conductive environment. This means a very wet environment. Some fish have active sensors that generate their own electricity instead of only sensing others.

Anything with separated charges is a battery.

Separated charges generate an e-field between these two points of separation. This electric field provides the force to move energized charges in a circuit. As an analogy think of the the movement of charges in a wire like water in a river. The electric field provides the push that generates a current. The water is not used up as it flows over a dam. Instead, its potential energy extracted from the water as it is used to turn turbines at the bottom of the water fall to generate electricity. In the same way charges flow through a wire and some of their energy is used up to power electronic devices.

Thunderstorms combined with the Earth are batteries. They generate huge electric fields between the clouds and the ground and between the bottom of the cloud and the top of the cloud. These fields are responsible for lightning.

• You are safe in a metal car because of the Faraday cage you are sitting in. It has NOTHING to do with the rubber tires -PERIOD!
• In a lighting storm do not attach yourself to the outside by a cord or path such as a corded phone, corded keyboard, corded game controller. Wireless equipment is safe to use.
  
• Don’t wash your hands, if possible, with running water.
  
• Don’t take a bath or shower. Lightning can travel through the water and into you.
• Close all windows and doors. Bolts of lightning can travel on the wind blown in.
• If you are in field, too far from a building when your hair stands up and your skin feels prickly, squat onthe balls of your feet. Do NOT put you hands on your legs, knees or the ground while squatting. NEVER lay down.

In 1909 Robert Milikan conducted an experiment to whose purpose it was to calculate the charge on an electron. They flooded a vacuum chamber with small charged oil drops. These drops where pulled down by gravity. Milikan applied an electric field inside the container. Many of the charged oil drops became suspended. He used this information to calculate the electron's charge. This experiment showed that charges occurred in integer multiples of 1.60 x 10^-19C. This is absolute value of an electron's charge, or a proton's charge. This charge is called the "elementary charge." For over half a century, the elementary charge was believed to the smallest possible charge. (Until physicists got new data.)

Above is a one minute video explaining Milikan's experiment. It is from YouTube. Here is its actual address, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMfYHag7Liw, by HerrPingui , uploaded April 22, 2008 accessed April 5, 2010.

Then 1964 Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig mathematically predicted the exist of fundamental particles called quarks. These quarks possess no charge or +1/3 or +2/3 of an elementary charge. The accepted names for the quarks are:

• up
• down
• top
• bottom
• strange
• charm

They can be combined to create nearly two hundred subatomic particles. Without going into too much detail, it takes three quarks to create any of the particles of the nucleus. Protons and neutrons are created with quarks. Electrons are NOT created with quarks. Quarks are a fundamental part of "The Standard Model." The standard model is use to explain the exist of other particles, forces and how they interact with the environment. Below is a table depicting the standard model as of April 2010.