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The simplest definition for a potential gradient F in one dimension is the following: [1] = = where ϕ(x) is some type of scalar potential and x is displacement (not distance) in the x direction, the subscripts label two different positions x 1, x 2, and potentials at those points, ϕ 1 = ϕ(x 1), ϕ 2 = ϕ(x 2).
The force is a vector field, which can be obtained as a factor of the gradient of the potential energy scalar field. Examples include: Examples include: Potential fields, such as the Newtonian gravitational potential , or the electric potential in electrostatics , are scalar fields which describe the more familiar forces.
An example is the (nearly) uniform gravitational field near the Earth's surface. It has a potential energy = where U is the gravitational potential energy and h is the height above the surface. This means that gravitational potential energy on a contour map is proportional to altitude. On a contour map, the two-dimensional negative gradient of ...
For example, the gradient of the function (,,) = + is (,,) = + (). or (,,) = []. In some applications it is customary to represent the gradient as a row vector or column vector of its components in a rectangular coordinate system; this article follows the convention of the gradient being a column vector, while the derivative is a row ...
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 ...
An example is the Morse/Long-range potential. It is helpful to use the analogy of a landscape: for a system with two degrees of freedom (e.g. two bond lengths), the value of the energy (analogy: the height of the land) is a function of two bond lengths (analogy: the coordinates of the position on the ground).
The concentration of the diffusing species must be low enough that the chemical potential gradient is accurately represented by the concentration gradient (thus, the analogy has limited application to concentrated liquid solutions). When the rate of mass transfer is high or the concentration of the diffusing species is not low, corrections to ...
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 ...