# Question w/ chemical potential, equivalence to Energy or Potential?

by klawlor419
Tags: chemical, energy, equivalence, potential, w or
 P: 117 I have a quick question, is the chemical potential $$\mu=\partial F /\partial N$$ where F is the free energy physically equivalent to a potential or energy? For example, in electrostatics, $$V=U/q$$ Does $$\mu_{ext}= U \text{ or } V$$ Also, same thing could be asked about gravity, $$V_g=U_{g}/m$$ Does $$\mu_{ext}= U_g \text{ or } V_g$$ Thanks ahead of time.
 Quote by klawlor419 I have a quick question, is the chemical potential $$\mu=\partial F /\partial N$$ where F is the free energy physically equivalent to a potential or energy? For example, in electrostatics, $$V=U/q$$ Does $$\mu_{ext}= U \text{ or } V$$ Also, same thing could be asked about gravity, $$V_g=U_{g}/m$$ Does $$\mu_{ext}= U_g \text{ or } V_g$$ Thanks ahead of time.
 P: 117 I am talking about the amount of Free energy or just plain old energy required to add or remove particles from a system. That amount of energy per particle is defined as the chemical potential. I understand that there is to some degree a Coulomb attraction present in all matter.. and that for a fluid or gas of ~10^23 atoms it is impractical to write out the electric potential for the system. Just worried about the basic definition of the chemical potential $$\mu$$