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The electric potential energy of a system of point charges is defined as the work required to assemble this system of charges by bringing them close together, as in the system from an infinite distance.
In short, an electric potential is the electric potential energy per unit charge. This value can be calculated in either a static (time-invariant) or a dynamic (time-varying) electric field at a specific time with the unit joules per coulomb (J⋅C −1) or volt (V). The electric potential at infinity is assumed to be zero.
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 nuclear force acting on the baryon charge is called nuclear potential ...
Early investigators of the 18th century who suspected that the electrical force diminished with distance as the force of gravity did (i.e., as the inverse square of the distance) included Daniel Bernoulli [12] and Alessandro Volta, both of whom measured the force between plates of a capacitor, and Franz Aepinus who supposed the inverse-square ...
If the electron is in an electric field of 43 MV/m, it will be accelerated and acquire 21.5 eV of energy in 0.5 μm of travel in the direction of the field. The first ionization energy needed to dislodge an electron from nitrogen molecule is about 15.6 eV. The accelerated electron will acquire more than enough energy to ionize a nitrogen molecule.
Many times in the use and calculation of electric and magnetic fields, the approach used first computes an associated potential: the electric potential, , for the electric field, and the magnetic vector potential, A, for the magnetic field. The electric potential is a scalar field, while the magnetic potential is a vector field.
Any movement of a positive charge into a region of higher potential requires external work to be done against the electric field, which is equal to the work that the electric field would do in moving that positive charge the same distance in the opposite direction. Similarly, it requires positive external work to transfer a negatively charged ...
The thickness of the diffuse electric double layer is known as the Debye screening length /. At a distance of two Debye screening lengths the electrical potential energy is reduced to 2 percent of the value at the surface wall.