I found a intresting question in my physics book.But I'm unable to solve it.Please try out dis problem guys

Question

"A student asked, "since electric potential is always proportional to potential energy, why bother with the concept of potential at all?"How would you respond."

This is how the question asked in my book [UNIVERSITY PHYSICS].So how do you respond to this question?

Answer 1

Because the potential is a more fundamental concept in field theories than the potential energy: for example, you may derive the field from the potential directly, but you cannot do this (directly) from the potential energy.

This is even more striking in quantum field theories: see the article on the Ahoronov-Bohm effect below.

And this is only the physics side: in the rigorous geometrical formalization of field theories the potential appears as a "connection" (readers familiar with General Relativity will know what I'm referring to) on the space-time manifold, while the field appears as the curvature of this manifold, and the latter is derived from the former, which is more fundamental.

Answer 2

The term "potential" implies that a static situation has the capacity to change its potential energy into kinetic energy or some other kind of energy under the right circumstances. In a sense, potential energy is stored until something causes it to be changed in form or transferred.

Answer 3

Electric potential is a property of the electric field of a single charged body; so it says something about the distribution of charge on that body. On the other hand, potential _energy_ can't be calculated unless you also refer to some 2nd charged body with some specific charge on it. Potential energy tells you something about how two specific bodies interact; potential tells you something about the properties of one body independent of any 2nd body.

Answer 4

electric potential is a normalization to potential energy , ie.,
work done per unit charge , so it depends only on work
done to bring a distant charge in the vicinity of chargeed particles regardless of the charge 'q' itself
in other words , U= integral qdv

Answer 5

Good point. I think the answer is no one wants to change all the electric and electronic documentation on the planet.