Can Electric Potential Be Negative

Electric potential can be negative if you go close enough to a negative charge.

Can electric potential be negative. Voltage is not the same as energy. To see that this must be so just replace the charge distribution not the test charge all the others with one that has the opposite sign. Dont think that energy is negative think like this there is a pt a where the charge has potential energy of 10j now when it is moved against an electric field u supply energy by doing work and move it to anothere pt b u have supplied 5 j so now potential energy of the charge is 15j. Before i attempt to explain it make sure to recognize that electric potential and electric potential energy are two different but very.

The electric potential can be negative. If two objects of different charge with one being twice the charge of the other are moved the same distance into the electric field then the object with twice the charge would require twice the force and thus twice the amount of work. Electric potential energy absolutely can be negative. Typically the reference point is the earth or a point at infinity although any point can be used.

This actually is an essential feature because if not the potential near a positive charge would be same as the potential near a negative charge. One important point however. Using the above definitions w pint q2 grad v q1 r. Can electric potential ever be negative.

Both in difference and absolutely if you have chosen a gauge. This causes a lot of problems for example if this were true positive charges would move away from negative ones. An electric potential also called the electric field potential potential drop or the electrostatic potential is the amount of work needed to move a unit of electric charge from a reference point to a specific point in an electric field without producing an acceleration. Voltage is the energy per unit charge.

I have never dealt with negative potential energy before. Electric potential math dfrac k q r math where q is the source of the electric field r is the distance between the test charge and source and k is coulomb s constant math k dfrac 8 99 10 9nm c 2 math electric potential is a proper. Unless the unit charge crosses a changing magnetic field its potential at any given point does not depend on the path taken. Although the concept of electric potential is useful in understanding.

The potential does not have an absolutely defined value you have to arbitrarily give it a value at a certain point.