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Yes, that's an excellent point. So I guess the follow up question is how to learn the qualitative ideas behind electric fields?

I've got a lot of inventions I've thought of related to static charges, and I'm trying to basically figure out why they wouldn't work. Maybe I can email a couple over to you and you can point me to the right concepts? (email in my profile)

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Alas, the trouble is that it's tremendously hard to learn (or teach!) the qualitative ideas without also learning the equations. (The only counterexample to that I've ever seen in physics is Feynman's amazing little book "QED", which isn't at all what you need here.) So I've got nothin' for ya. (And while I do enjoy conversations about this sort of thing, obviously, I can't possibly sustain one with my job these days: I'm already going to regret the time I've spent on this one. But it was fun.)

There's no substitute for actually working through the equations and math, but working with simulations can help drive concepts home. For example, PhET has a virtual capacitor lab (it's a Java applet).

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/capacitor-lab

If you have multivariable calculus under your belt, then don't be too afraid of jumping into something like Griffiths E&M.

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