Electric Potential and Electric fields

[Brooke Turner]

Homework Statement

Can there be a point in space where there is an electric potential but not electric field? Can there be a point in space where there is an electric field but no electric potential? Explain you answer.

What would the electric field lines look like if the electric field was constant? Would they be parallel instead of perpendicular? Straight?

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

 

[cnh1995]

Welcome to PF!

Can there be a point in space where there is an electric potential but not electric field?

Yes.

Can there be a point in space where there is an electric field but no electric potential?

Yes.

What would the electric field lines look like if the electric field was constant? Would they be parallel instead of perpendicular?

Perpendicular to what?

 

[Brooke Turner]

Can you give an example as to when there can be an electric field but no electric potential? and Vice versa

 

[chopnhack]

I find the answers above a bit odd. I am still learning so take it with a grain of salt, but electric fields and electric charges both have the unit charge as a common denominator. I would think that makes them critically linked.

An electric field is the space between two potentials, how can you have a field without the potentials??

 

[cnh1995]

Can you give an example as to when there can be an electric field but no electric potential? and Vice versa

What can you say about the axis of an electric dipole?
What can you say about the interior of a uniformly charged conducting hollow sphere?

 

[cnh1995]

An electric field is the space between two potentials, how can you have a field without the potentials??

I find this definition of the electric field odd.
Electric field is the "gradient" of electric potential. Just because the potential at a point is zero does not mean its gradient at that point is also zero.

 

[gneill]

Keep in mind that potential is relative to some reference point, the conventional choice being the potential at some location infinitely far away from any charge ("at infinity").

However, you are not constrained by convention; you could choose a reference point where the potential is the same as that of the location you wish to be "zero"