Why is the earth always at zero potential ?

Answer 1

The POTENTIAL is an INTEGRATED quantity. The acceleration depends only on the GRADIENT of the potential. So there is ALWAYS an adjustable constant in any definition of the potential.

When you're working problems in the vicinity of Earth's surface, the most natural thing is to choose to DEFINE the zero of potential to be the Earth's surface.

However, in more general circumstances, OTHER CHOICES are better, believe me. In considering star formation, etc., the most natural thing is to choose the POTENTIAL AT INFINITY to be the zero.

Once again: it's an ABSOLUTELY ARBITRARY CHOICE, made solely for convenience. Once made in any one problem's context, you STICK WITH IT. But adding any constant to a potential has NO CONSEQUENCES on the dynamics that follow from it. Why? : Only the GRADIENT OF THE POTENTIAL has any dynamical consequences.

Live long and prosper.

Answer 2

Earth potential is 100 V. For most of the purpose we are not concerned about absolute potential rather we are concerned about relative potential, so we take earth to be at 0 (Zero) potential.

Answer 3

It is not. It is considered so in doing problems.
Actually on the earth, the potential energy would be m*g*h, where h is the distance between the center of the earth and our object.
But when doing problems we are only interested in the difference of potential energy from one point to another. There is no reason to calculate the potential energy from the center of the earth to the first position our object and then from the center of the earth to the second position of the object. Only the difference between these two positions matters in a problem.

Answer 4

It doesn't have to be. You can define potential to be zero at any point you choose. It happens to be most convenient for most situations to define potential to be zero on the surface of the Earth or 0m above the surface of the Earth. The most important thing to remember is that massive objects will go from higher gravitational potentials to lower ones. The force they feel is related to the gradient of potential.

Answer 5

The term < earth-ed or grounding> is a common part of electricity.The general idea is that everything comes and goes to earth.It has to be suppose that for zero potential surface level.Gauss"s Law of electricity says that of a conducting sphere.

Answer 6

Its just a convention... u see we always measure potential difference, not actually potential. You calculate or find the potential with respect to earth...You've got to take a bench mark, that bench mark is Earth in some cases...

Answer 7

Heavenly bodies are considered to have zero potential.

Answer 8

Potential is a relative quantity. you can make it any number you want. The earth can be one big conductor that can absorb large amounts of charges.

Answer 9

every partical in the space is considered to be of zero potential.

Answer 10

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