Electric Potential

Electric force
Electric
charge potentials

Conservative Amount of
force work charges

Distribution of
charges
Electric potential
energy
 Electric/Electrostatic Force

• Force exerted by electric charges

• Noncontact force
• Can be repulsive or attractive
 Conservative Force

• Forces that store energy.

• Work done by or against conservative
forces depends only on the starting and
ending points of a motion, NOT on the
path taken.
 Electric Potential Energy

• One of the 4 types of Potential Energy.

• Capacity for doing work based on the
object’s electric charge.
 Potential Energy (U)
• An stored energy of an object at rest.

Kinetic Energy
• Energy an object has when it is in motion.
 Electric/Electrostatic Potential
••  Scalar quantity
• Describes how much stored energy an object has.
• Measure of work needed to move a charge.
• Electric potential energy per unit charge.
• Volt as its SI Unit
 Scalar Quantity

• A scalar quantity is a one dimensional

measurement of a quantity, like
temperature, or mass.
Alessandro Volta

• Volt was named after him.

• He devised one of the first
electric cells.
 Potential Difference
• Work done to move a unit charge from one point to
another.
• 
Formulas

V q 0