pseudourinidine on Nostr: Well, to stick to my narrow question, in the terms I'm talking about there certainly ...

Well, to stick to my narrow question, in the terms I'm talking about there certainly is "such thing as a spherical field".

A negative electric charge will attract positive charges from all directions. From the left, right, front, back, top, bottom and all directions in between.

That gives you a sphere, not a plane. By my understanding of force fields, you'd represent that with arrows all pointing to the central negative charge - in a sphere.


Separately, you mention buoyancy etc as some flaw with the theory of gravity, as I've heard FE proponents do before. But for there to be any such effect you still need a force - be it gravity or static charge.

Moreover all those arguments that I've heard about buoyancy are easily understood by appreciating that all objects and materials are subject to gravity, including air and water, and any other medium. They can't all occupy the same space, so the most dense end up being drawn further in the field.

Helium balloons rise because the air around them is denser and drawn under them. But they are absolutely not "escaping" gravity, they are just moving to their place in the density order caused by gravity. They won't float off from the earth unless acted on by some other force.

This is just the same as a piece of wood rising in water. It's not escaping gravity - it stops rising when the fluid beneath (water) is denser than it is, and the fluid above is less dense (air).

There's nothing special about fluids in this respect - setting aside friction the reason objects lie on the ground is that the ground is denser and the object more buoyant. I see no oddity or inconsistency here.