- #1
fluidistic
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Homework Statement
I'm facing an extremely easy problem (well, I set it up myself) that I can't even solve!
I want to calculate the electric potential of a charge q in function of d, the distance from it.
I let 0 be the point where the charge is.
[tex]\varphi (d) - \varphi (0) = - \int _0^d \frac{kq \vec r}{r^3} \cdot d \vec r=-k q \int _0^d \frac{dr}{r^2}[/tex] and I would divide by zero if I continue.
So I realize that instead of the 0 in the lower integral limit, why should I put [tex]\infty[/tex]? After all, it's not like setting the potential energy as 0 at infinity. I'm dealing with the electrostatic potential and not the potential energy (although they differ by a multiplicative constant in the static case).
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