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Prerequisites
Wrap-Up: Visualization of Potentials
§ {Activity: Visualization of Potentials} should have given you practice visualizing electrostatic potentials due to some simple charge configurations. Some things that you might have needed to pay attention to are:
- The electrostatic potential is a scalar field, not a vector field, i.e. it is a number at every point in space, not a vector.
- The electrostatic potential at a given point due to several discrete charges is the scalar sum of the potentials due to the separate charges.
- These examples are inherently 3-dimensional; drawing in three dimensions may be more challenging than visualizing in three dimensions.
- The potential is typically not zero at a point where the net electric field or the net force on a test charge is zero. Don't claim that the potentials “cancel” just because the forces do.
- Pay attention to how the shape of the equipotential surfaces is related to the “shape” of the charge distribution.