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There are various types of potential energy, each associated with a particular type of force. For example, the work of an elastic force is called elastic potential energy; work of the gravitational force is called gravitational potential energy; work of the Coulomb force is called electric potential energy; work of the strong nuclear force or weak nuclear force acting on the baryon charge is ...
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 ...
The gravitational potential energy is the potential energy an object has because it is within a gravitational field. The magnitude of the force between a point mass, M {\displaystyle M} , and another point mass, m {\displaystyle m} , is given by Newton's law of gravitation : [ 3 ] F = G M m r 2 {\displaystyle F={\frac {GMm}{r^{2}}}}
The electrostatic potential energy U E stored in a system of two charges is equal to the electrostatic potential energy of a charge in the electrostatic potential generated by the other. That is to say, if charge q 1 generates an electrostatic potential V 1 , which is a function of position r , then U E = q 2 V 1 ( r 2 ) . {\displaystyle U ...
In that case, the difference in potential energy from one height to another is, to a good approximation, linearly related to the difference in height (∆h): . Massic gravitational potential energy is typically measured in Joules per kilogram (J/kg) in the International System of Units.
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 ...
Classical mechanics is the branch of physics used to describe the motion of macroscopic objects. [1] It is the most familiar of the theories of physics. The concepts it covers, such as mass, acceleration, and force, are commonly used and known. [2] The subject is based upon a three-dimensional Euclidean space with fixed axes, called a frame of ...
Siméon Denis Poisson. Poisson's equation is an elliptic partial differential equation of broad utility in theoretical physics.For example, the solution to Poisson's equation is the potential field caused by a given electric charge or mass density distribution; with the potential field known, one can then calculate the corresponding electrostatic or gravitational (force) field.