Human illuson of field

Suppose a researcher conducts a similar experiment using two charged bodies. One body is charged positively (CA), and another (CB) has a negative charge. Both bodies have charges equal to each other by magnitude. CA-CB is the distance that separates both bodies. The following figure shows that case.

Electrical field in case of two charged bodies

The researcher makes a similar measurement again, putting the test charge at various space points around both charges. To his surprise, the measuring instrument shows a different indication. The force at different locations does not show the law defined in the first experiment. The magnitude and direction of the force become different. The researcher moves the test charge by that force so that the force becomes tangent to the charge path at each location. As a result, it shows a curve shown in the picture as the red dashed line.

The trouble begins here. According to the usual method of measurement, the measuring instrument shows only the force coming from the test charge. The instrument does not separate forces when more than one force is applied to the test charge.

As a result, the researcher is under the illusion that force F3 (the net force) shows the condition of the field itself. It happens because the device does not show forces F1 and F2 separately at the same point of measurement (C2).

In other words, the force F3 shown by the measuring instrument does not exist as a physical force. It appears as a combination of physical forces F1 and F2 applied to the test charge. Those forces come from two fields of two charged bodies. Therefore,

The net force F3 appears due to the interaction of those two physical forces (F1 and F2) with the same test charge located at point C2. Moreover, the same interaction law applies to any other point of space. Therefore, the so-called changed electrical field of two charged bodies described in every book on physics does not exist.

The researcher goes further and starts to pull charged bodies close to each other. The measuring instrument detects the magnitude of the force coming down slowly. The following figure shows that case.

Electrical field in case of two charged bodies (CA and CB) located close to each other

The net force F3 decreases in magnitude during that experiment. This happens because physical forces F1 and F2 remain at the same magnitude but change their directions continuously until they become opposite. In that case, the net force F3 becomes zero in magnitude. It happens as soon as the researcher puts both charged bodies together, and the distance between them becomes zero, too.

In that case, the measuring instrument gives zero readings because it detects the net force with zero magnitude. However, the researcher believes that "the electrical field does not exist in that case" and "the body that has an equal number of positive and negative charges becomes electrically neutral."

Moreover, the researcher puts the test charge at point C3. The measuring instrument shows zero readings again, and it also shows zero readings moving by any possible path between points C2 and C3.

The researcher falls under heavy illusion again because the "electrically neutral body C" does not show any electrical field around it when measured by "a susceptible measuring instrument."

However, such a conclusion is completely wrong because zero readings of the measuring instrument depend on the zero magnitude of the net force that the instrument detects instead of the zero physical force of the zero value of the field at a given point. Moreover, physical forces at points C2 and C3 have different magnitudes because of the various distances C-C2 and C-C3, but the measuring instrument does not detect such a difference in any way.