Conservation of Electric Energy
▶︎ Watch it animatedinteractive step-through · ~3 min · optional ⚙︎ Open the appletLaunch Lab · draw the hill out of qV rather than V, then work the same speed out twice, on a field that holds still and on one that does notA charge moving through a field converts potential energy into kinetic energy, $\Delta K = q(V_{\text{start}} - V_{\text{end}})$, with the signs of the charge and both potentials kept. Because the hill a charge experiences is $U = qV$ rather than $V$ itself, a positive charge speeds up moving toward lower potential and a negative charge speeds up moving toward higher potential. The energy relation holds for any path in any field, while constant-acceleration kinematics holds only where the force is constant, which in this unit means the uniform field between parallel plates.
Two errors dominate. Releasing every charge from high potential toward low regardless of sign, so an electron beside the $100$ V plate is predicted to gain kinetic energy crossing to the $0$ V plate when that trip costs it energy. And running constant-acceleration relations on a charge moving near a point source, where the force changes as the separation changes, by computing $a = qE/m$ at the release point and carrying that value through the whole trip.
The work
3 ways in · any order
Lesson
Conservation of Electric Energy
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Builds the energy landscape out of qV so a negative charge runs the other way, and replaces constant-acceleration kinematics with energy conservation wherever the force is not constant.
Diagnostic
10-item topic check
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Ten items spanning the failure modes of this topic: sending every charge from high potential toward low regardless of sign, and running constant-acceleration formulas through a field that changes along the path. Take it cold to find which one is yours, or after the lesson to confirm it is not.
Targeted Practice
Drill a single misconception
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Pick one of the failure modes you missed and drill it on its own. The round is adaptive: two correct in a row clears it for now and moves you to the next. Two in a row is a checkpoint, not proof: if the error resurfaces later, the misconception comes back.