ELECTRIC POTENTIAL

WEEK THREE
DATE: 7th February 2025 TIME: 2:00 PM- 5:00 PM
TOPIC 3
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
Expected Learning Outcomes
By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
i) Define term electric potential
ii) State the superposition principle
iii) Explain the applications of superposition principle
iv) Explain equipotential lines

Electric Potential
 This is the amount of electric potential energy that a unitary point electric
charge would have if located at any point in space, and is equal to the work
done by an electric field in carrying a unit of positive charge from infinity
to that point.
 An electric potential is also called the electric field potential or the electrostatic
potential.
 Electric potential is a scalar quantity denoted by V.

Conservative force
 This is a force that its work depends only on the initial and final position of
the particle, and not on the path followed.
 The electrostatic force is a conservative force. With each conservative force, a
potential energy can be associated.
 Consider a charge Q, placed in an electric field generated by fixed charges.
Let us chose some arbitrary reference point A, in the field.

 Thus, if the electric potential energy of a charge, Q at point, B is, PB then the
electric potential energy of a charge, 2Q at the same point is, 2PB .

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 The difference in electric potential between two points A and B in an

electric field is simply the work done in moving some charge between the
two points divided by the magnitude of the charge. Thus,

where, VA, denotes the electric potential at point, A, etc.

 the potential energy of a charge, Q at some point, B is simply the product of
the magnitude of the charge and the electric potential VA at that point:

 The units of electric potential are, therefore, joules per coulomb ( )

where a joule per coulomb is usually referred to as a volt (V): i.e.,

 In order to move a charge through a potential difference we must do

work;

 The electric potential energy of the charge increases by an amount

 The electrostatic potential, V, at a given position is defined as the potential

energy of a test particle divided by the charge q of this object:

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 The unit of electrostatic potential is the volt (V), and 1 V = 1 J/C = 1 Nm/C.
Equation (4) shows that as the unit of the electric field we can also use V/m.
 A common used unit for the energy of a particle is the electron-volt (eV)
defined as the change in kinetic energy of an electron that travels over a potential
difference of 1 V.

Example
 Let us move a test positive unit charge q0 from the first point to the second
one along line L and calculate the work.


 The elementary part of length dl is so small, that the electric field intensity E
is taken as a constant in magnitude and direction within the limits of dl.
 The total work, done in this small interval is
1 qq0
dA  Fdl cos   dl cos ,
40 r2
dl cos  dr,
1 qq0
dA   dr .
4 0 r2
 The total work is

1  qq0 qq0 
r2 r
qq0 2 dr
A   dA      .
r1
4 0 r1 r 2
4 0  r1 r2 
 The work done doesn't relate to the shape and length of the path L but
defined only by the position of the points 1 and 2.
 The work done around any closed contour is always zero:

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(  d A  0) .
 That is

q 0 Edl  0 .
 And for unit charge, q0  1 :

 Edl  0. 
 This integral is called the intensity vector E circulation.

Electric potential due to a point charge

 The electric potential due to a system of point charges is equal to the sum
of the point charges' individual potentials.
 The electric potential created by a point charge Q, at a distance r from the
charge (relative to the potential at infinity), can be shown to be

where ε0 is permittivity of vacuum and this is known as the Coulomb

potential.

Intensity Vector and Potential

 The relationship between work and force in dynamics is:
 

dA  F , dr . 
 Let us divide this equation by the value of the test charge q0 :
 2 
dA  F  
  ; dr   1  2   Edr ,
q0  q0  1
2 
2  1   Edr .
1
 Dividing the last equation by the value, we obtain:
d
E .
dr
 Thus

E   grad .
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 At given point of electric field the intensity equals to minus gradient of

potential at this point.
 Consider the two points shown in Figure 5.

 These two nearly identical positions are separated by an infinitesimal

distance dL.
 The change in the electrostatic potential between P1 and P2 is given by

where the angle [theta] is the angle between the direction of the electric
field and the direction of the displacement.
 Equation can be rewritten as

where EL indicates the component of the electric field along the L-axis.
 If the direction of the displacement is chosen to coincide with the x-axis,
becomes

 For the displacements along the y-axis and z-axis we obtain

 The total electric field E can be obtained from the electrostatic potential, V, by
combining equations (19), (20), and (21):

 Equation (22) is usually written in the following form,

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where -V is the gradient of the potential V.

Example 1:
A total charge Q is distributed uniformly along a straight rod of length L. Find the
potential at point P at a distance h from the midpoint of the rod.

Solution
 The potential at P due to a small segment of the rod, with length dx and
charge dQ, located at the position indicated in Figure.3 is given by

 The charge dQ of the segment is related to the total charge Q and length L

 Combining equations the two equations, we obtain the following

expression for dV:

Example 2.
 A total charge Q is distributed uniformly along a straight rod of length L. Find
the potential at point P at a distance h from the midpoint of the rod as shown in
the figure,.

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Solution
The total potential at P can be obtained by summing over all small segments. This
is equivalent to integrating eq.(9) between x = - L/2 and x = L/2.

Example 3:
An alpha particle with a kinetic energy of 1.7 x 10-12 J is shot directly towards a
platinum nucleus from a very large distance. What will be the distance of closest
approach?

Solution
 The electric charge of the alpha particle is 2e and that of the platinum
nucleus is 78e.
 Treat the alpha particle and the nucleus as spherical charge distributions and
disregard the motion of the nucleus.
 The initial mechanical energy is equal to the kinetic energy of the alpha
particle,

 At the distance of closest approach the velocity of the alpha particle is zero,
and thus its kinetic energy is equal to zero.
 The total mechanical energy at this point is equal to the potential energy of
the system

where q1 is the charge of the alpha particle, q2 is the charge of the

platinum nucleus, and d is the distance of closest approach.
 Applying conservation of mechanical energy we obtain;

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 The distance of closest approach can be)

Example 5
In some region of space, the electrostatic potential is the following function of x, y,

and z: where the potential is measured in volts and the

distances in meters. Find the electric field at the points x = 2 m, y = 2 m.

Solution
 The x, y and z components of the electric field E can be obtained from the
gradient of the potential V (eq.(23)):

 Evaluating equations at x = 2 m and y = 2 m gives

, ,
 Thus

Example 6:
An annulus (a disk with a hole) made of paper has an outer radius R and an inner
radius R/2. An amount Q of electric charge is uniformly distributed over the paper.

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a) Find the potential as a function of the distance on the axis of the annulus. b)
Find the electric field on the axis of the annulus.

Solution
 Consider a ring with radius r and width dr as shown in Figure 6. The
electrostatic potential dV at P generated by this ring is given by

where dQ is the charge on the ring. The charge density [rho] of the annulus
is equal to

 the charge dQ of the ring can be;

 Substituting we obtain

 The total electrostatic potential can be obtained by integrating over the

whole annulus:

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 The electric field will be directed along the x-axis. The field strength can be
obtained as;

Superposition Principle

 The superposition principle takes place: the vector E at a given point for
electric field of any system of charges may be found by summing the
vectors for the individual charges
 n 
E   Ei ,
i 1

where n is the number of charges.

Electric Potential of a Dipole

 The electrostatic potential at point P can be found by summing the
potentials generated by each of the two charges:

 Figure below shows an electric dipole located along the z-axis. It consists of
two charges + Q and - Q, separated by a distance L.

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 If the point P is far away from the dipole (r >> L) we can make the
approximation that r1 and r2 are parallel.
 In this case

and

 The electrostatic potential at P can now be rewritten as

where p is the dipole moment of the charge distribution.

Electric Potential Energy

 Potential energy can be defined as the capacity for doing work which arises
from position or configuration.
 If a positive charge Q is fixed at some point in space, any other positive
charge which is brought close to it will experience a repulsive force and will
therefore have potential energy.

Zero Potential
 The zero of electric potential (or voltage) is set for convenience, but there
is usually some physical or geometric logic to the choice of the zero point.
 For a single point charge or localized collection of charges, it is logical to
set the zero point at infinity.
 But for an infinite line charge, that is not a logical choice, since the local
values of potential would go to infinity.
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 For practical electrical circuits, the earth or ground potential is usually

taken to be zero and everything is referenced to the earth.

Reference electric Potential at Infinity

 The general expression for the electric potential as a result of a point charge,
Q, can be obtained by referencing to a zero of potential at infinity.
 The expression for the potential difference is: taking the limit as rb→∞ gives
simply for any arbitrary value of r.
 Using this condition, the electric potential energy for a charge q at r is then;

where k is Coulomb's constant.

Equipotential lines
 Equipotential lines are connected lines of the same potential. These often
appear on field line diagrams.
 Equipotential lines are always perpendicular to field lines, and therefore
perpendicular to the force experienced by a charge in the field.
 If a charge moves along an equipotential line, no work is done; if a charge
moves between equipotential lines, work is done.
 Field lines and equipotential lines for a point charge, and for a constant field
between two charged plates, are shown below:

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

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