What I understand thus far:
- Electric potential (voltage) is the potential energy a charge possesses due to its location in the electrical field
- An electric and magnetic field is created when a current runs through a wire.
- Electrons are not what carries the energy in a circuit, it is the photons in the electromagnetic field that carry the energy.
My question is where the electric field comes from and why it behaves the way it does. From my understanding, the electric field is formed due to a difference in electric potential between two points. But, however this can't hold true because otherwise there would be an electric field between the positive and negative terminals of a battery that would short it. What do that actual electrons have to do with how the field behaves and the direction it points. As known, the electrons simply have a drift velocity due to the field pointing away from the negative terminal. So they can't be the ones carrying the energy.