Potential Energy

Potential energy is the energy stored in a system due to it’s configuration. Various properties like mass, Charge, deformation contribute to potential energy.

Potential energy can only exist if the system has conservative forces.

#todo has something to do with gradient vectors. god fucking knows what.

Types §

• Electrical Potential Energy (Or Electric Potential Energy) - Caused due to the configuration of charges in the system. Requires at least two Charges
• Gravitational Energy - Caused from the configuration of
• Elastic Energy

Work and Potential Energy §

$$W=-\Delta U$$

• $W_C$= Work done by conservative forces
• $\Delta U$ = Change in potential energy.

The relation between potential energy and work stems from the idea that potential energy is from conservative forces.

For a system of conductors: §

$$U=\frac{1}{2}\sum _i{q}_i{V}_i$$

Resources §

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V3w1PxJFXc - Explaining the ‘Zero’ line, for gravity.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba5oI7QO2cE - Most of my understanding comes from this, explaining why gravity is negative.