# Quick electric potential question

1. Feb 20, 2006

### hoseA

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6329/potential4iu.png [Broken]

i thought the electric potenial would be larger at Va than at V0.

Va>V0

Apparently I'm wrong. I thought since R=0 at the origin the electric potential would also be zero. Is that not the case?

Can the electric potential even be determined?

Or am i mixing it up with electric potential energy?

Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2017
2. Feb 20, 2006

### phucnv87

In the picture you attached, I think that the electric field is uniform

3. Feb 20, 2006

### hoseA

How do u arrive at this conclusion?

4. Feb 20, 2006

### phucnv87

Because the lines of electric force are parallel

5. Feb 20, 2006

### hoseA

=( apparently that's incorrect. It's either V0>VA or "cannot be determined"

I really need to get the answer right... since it's a multiple choice question -- -6.67 is my current score(negative)... if it's right i'll get -3.33 or -10 if it's wrong.

6. Feb 20, 2006

### phucnv87

As the picture shows, we have $$V_0>V_A$$ and because we don't know $$V_A$$, so we can calculate $$V_0$$. If we know $$V_A$$ we can calculate $$V_0$$ by this method $$V_0=V_A+Ex$$ where $$x$$ is the position of point A in the x-axis.

Last edited: Feb 20, 2006
7. Feb 20, 2006

### hoseA

Thanks. That helps.