Electrostatic Potential Energy

Learning Objectives: After this lesson, you should be able to…

  • Define electrostatic potential energy and apply Coulomb's Law to rank the overall electrostatic energy, and the strength of attraction for different interacting charges.

Electrostatic potential energy is the potential (stored) energy associated with the position of charged particles. When two particles separated by an infinite distance, Eel = 0. We are likely familiar with the idea that opposite charges attract. In this scenario, Eel < 0 (negative) because the system (the charges) will do work to bring them closer together. (Think about having to put energy into the system to pull those particles apart to get back up to E = 0.) For like charges, Eel > 0. The surroundings must do work on the system to bring those particles closer together. According to Coulomb's law, Eel depends on the magnitude of charge and the distance separating the particles.

Eel=Q1Q2d

In this mathematical representation, you can easily see how changes in charge and distance will affect Eel. (Don't forget that as a number gets more negative, it is actually getting smaller!)

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Try it!

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