Electric Potential: where is it zero?
So far we have only considered potential differences.
Define the electric potential of a point in space as the potential difference between that point and a reference point.
http://wug.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys112/fall97/acts/lect05/act05b/sld001.htm
- a good reference point is infinity ... we typically set V? = 0
- the electric potential is then defined as:
- for a point charge at origin, integrate in from infinity along some axis, e.g. the x-axis
- here “r” is distance to origin