Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Position vectors r and r′ used in the calculation. The starting point is Maxwell's equations in the potential formulation using the Lorenz gauge: =, = where φ(r, t) is the electric potential and A(r, t) is the magnetic vector potential, for an arbitrary source of charge density ρ(r, t) and current density J(r, t), and is the D'Alembert operator. [2]
That which is potential can theoretically be made actual by taking the right action; for example, a boulder on the edge of a cliff has potential to fall that could be actualized by pushing it over the edge. In physics, a potential may refer to the scalar potential or to the vector potential. In either case, it is a field defined in space, from ...
Potential energy is the energy by virtue of an object's position relative to other objects. [6] Potential energy is often associated with restoring forces such as a spring or the force of gravity. The action of stretching a spring or lifting a mass is performed by an external force that works against the force field of the potential.
The electric potential and the magnetic vector potential together form a four-vector, so that the two kinds of potential are mixed under Lorentz transformations. Practically, the electric potential is a continuous function in all space, because a spatial derivative of a discontinuous electric potential yields an electric field of impossibly ...
A thermodynamic potential (or more accurately, a thermodynamic potential energy) [1] [2] is a scalar quantity used to represent the thermodynamic state of a system. Just as in mechanics , where potential energy is defined as capacity to do work, similarly different potentials have different meanings.
i.e., the external potential is the sum of electric potential, gravitational potential, etc. (where q and m are the charge and mass of the species, V ele and h are the electric potential [15] and height of the container, respectively, and g is the acceleration due to gravity). The internal chemical potential includes everything else besides the ...
A potential energy surface (PES) or energy landscape describes the energy of a system, especially a collection of atoms, in terms of certain parameters, normally the positions of the atoms. The surface might define the energy as a function of one or more coordinates; if there is only one coordinate, the surface is called a potential energy ...
In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory is the study of harmonic functions.. The term "potential theory" was coined in 19th-century physics when it was realized that two fundamental forces of nature known at the time, namely gravity and the electrostatic force, could be modeled using functions called the gravitational potential and electrostatic potential, both of which ...