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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 ...
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 ...
Potential energy is the energy by virtue of an object's position relative to other objects. [5] 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.
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.
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]
The potential has units of energy per mass, e.g., J/kg in the MKS system. By convention, it is always negative where it is defined, and as x tends to infinity, it approaches zero. The gravitational field, and thus the acceleration of a small body in the space around the massive object, is the negative gradient of the gravitational potential ...
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 ...
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.