What’s the difference between Electric Potential and Electric Potential Energy? I’ve been trying to understand the difference but its not really working out for me :/
In: Physics
Charge.
Potential is a general, hypothetical thing. It tells you something about a point in space. It tells you how much potential energy something of unit charge would have if you put it there.
Potential Energy is the specific thing. It tells you about a particular object (or system). How much energy does this thing (or system) actually have.
If we have a point where the electric potential is *V*, and we put a particle with charge *q* there, the electric potential energy of that thing would be *U = qV*.
There is a similar relationship between an electric force and an electric field. The field tells you something about the point in space; how much would a thing of unit charge be forced if you put it there. The force tells you what happens to an actual thing; *F = qE*.
And you can get from force to potential energy, and from field strength to potential in the same way.
There is a whole bunch of maths behind this, and some more complicated physics, but that is the general idea.
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