The concept of a field can motivate a rich class-forum about the basic notions of physics. Despite its importance, only mathematical-conceptual aspects are emphasized in the classroom, leaving out historical-conceptual aspects. We believe that only the mathematical-conceptual presentation of this concept underestimates all its strength. We show in this paper how this physics concept can be introduced from two diferent but converging ways, First, we consider the notion of the field as something responsible for the mediation of interaction between bodies and then we treat it as a mathematical function of the coordinates and time. Next, we show that, in a complex process, these two conceptions have been merged towards the concept of field as we understand it nowadays.
field; ether; physics teaching; history of physics
