8: Chapter 8
- Page ID
- 16541
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- 8.1: Determining Field from Potential
- In certain systems, we can calculate the potential by integrating over the electric field. As you may already suspect, this means that we may calculate the electric field by taking derivatives of the potential, although going from a scalar to a vector quantity introduces some interesting wrinkles. We frequently need E to calculate the force in a system; since it is often simpler to calculate the potential directly, there are systems in which it is useful to calculate V and then derive E.
- 8.2: Equipotential Surfaces and Conductors
- We can represent electric potentials pictorially, just as we drew pictures to illustrate electric fields. This is not surprising, since the two concepts are related. We use arrows to represent the magnitude and direction of the electric field, and we use green lines to represent places where the electric potential is constant. These are called equipotential surfaces in three dimensions, or equipotential lines in two dimensions.
- 8.3: Applications of Electrostatics
- The study of electrostatics has proven useful in many areas. This module covers just a few of the many applications of electrostatics.