Does Electrostatic Potential Obey Superposition?

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latentcorpse
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why does electrostatic potential obey superposition?

it's a solution of poisson's equation and solutions of poisson's equation definitely do not obey superposition!
 
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If [tex]\nabla^2 \varphi_1 = -\rho_1 / \epsilon_0[/tex] and [tex]\nabla^2 \varphi_2 = -\rho_2 / \epsilon_0[/tex], then [tex]\varphi_1 + \varphi_2[/tex] satisfies [tex]\nabla^2 \varphi = -(\rho_1 + \rho_2) / \epsilon_0[/tex], i.e. the potential of the combined charge distribution [tex]\rho_1 + \rho_2[/tex] is the sum of the potentials of the individual distributions.