Electric energy, potential, and capacitors
What students will learn
Use potential and system energy to predict charge motion and explain how a capacitor stores energy.
Before this topic
- Work and conservative forces
- Signed charge, electric fields, and scalar sums
- Energy conservation and graph areas
Read and connect
Read: Electric Potential Energy →
Choose a reference and count interaction pairs once when finding electric potential energy.
Read: Electric Potential →
Add source potentials as scalars and connect labeled equipotentials to field direction and strength.
Read: Conservation of Electric Energy →
Track qΔV, kinetic-energy change, and external work with the correct charge sign.
Read: Capacitors →
Connect capacitor geometry, plate charge, field, dielectric response, and stored energy under an explicit constraint.
Check understanding
Use the complete prompt to make student reasoning visible, then consult the separate worked reasoning and criteria. A reading completion tick records reading history.
Draw an electric energy account →
Calculate a proton’s energy and speed from potential difference, draw energy bars, and compare with slow external transport.
Explain capacitor energy and battery work →
Calculate plate and field quantities, construct a voltage-charge graph, and distinguish stored energy from constant-voltage battery work.
The capacitor model neglects edge effects and uses a uniform dielectric with a stated ideal battery.
Standards and earlier reading lists
These topic placements organize reading. Edition-qualified Standards mappings and the existing complete unit task sets retain their reviewed scope.