Potential Is a Number

You'll learnhow to add potentials as plain signed numbers, and how the field hides in the slope of V, never in its value.

Every point near a charge gets a number: its potential. Add two of them like numbers and you get 8990 V; resolve them like vectors and you get an answer that is simply wrong. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · V IS A NUMBER · E IS ITS SLOPE · SAME COST, ANY ROUTE · v2

V adds as a signed number · E reads the slope, never the value

Before you start

What you're looking at

Charges, and the number each one stamps on a nearby point: its potential, drawn as a bar with no arrowhead. Below, that number plotted against position.

The question

If potential is just a number, what does it have to do with the field?

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