All Questions
7
questions
0
votes
3
answers
170
views
Why is the force that does the work, when calculating the electric potential energy, symmetric to the electric force? [closed]
"The electrical potential at a point is the work per unit charge required to move the charge to that point (r) from another point which has been assigned a potential of zero ($r_{0}$)". This ...
- 169
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Two Opposite Point Charges: Infinite Potential Energy?
If I had a fixed point-charge ($q_1$, +) and I placed another free-moving charge ($q_2$, -) some distance away, what is the potential energy between them?
The opposite charges attract drawing $q_2$ ...
- 21
8
votes
3
answers
3k
views
If magnetic force can't do any work, then how can we define a potential?
I am confused about the idea that magnetic forces do no work. If something has a potential, then it has energy and hence can do work. I am using the logic of electric fields for this reasoning. I have ...
- 137
1
vote
2
answers
59
views
Regarding the definition of the electrical potential energy
Let us say we have two charge positive $q_{1}$ and $q_{2}$ very far away from each other. Suppose also that $q_{1}$ is stuck in its place. If we want to bring them closer to some distance $b$ apart, ...
- 1,292
1
vote
0
answers
25
views
Proportionality of distance to work in differing conditions
Why is Work done by $F_{grav}$ and EMF proportional to distance but work done by $F_{elastic}$ proportional to the square of the distance?
- 343
-1
votes
2
answers
491
views
How to compute work needed to build a configuration of charges
Suppose an alignment of four charges in the vertices of a square. The first pair on one diagonal has positive charge and the other negative charge, all charges are of the same absolute value. length ...
21
votes
5
answers
18k
views
Why should Conservative forces have their curl equal to zero? (intuition)
There are several conditions that must be met in order for a force to be conservative.
One of them is that the curl of that force must be equal to zero?
What is the physical intuition behind this?
If ...
- 7,720