General Physics II
Quarter 3
Learner’s Packet
General Physics II
Grade 12
Quarter 3
Schools Division Office Management Team: : Rosemarie C. Blando, August Jamora,
Merle D. Lopez
Writer/s: Ryan Gelica A. Paday
Illustrator: Julius Burdeos
General Physics II
Quarter 3
First Edition, 2021
Published by: Department of Education SDO—Rizal
Schools Division Superintendent: Cherrylou D. Repia
Assistant Schools Division Superintendents:
Gloria C. Roque and Babylyn M. Pambid
2
WEEK
Electric Potential
Lesson 2
I
Electricity is quite a familiar idea to most of us. When asked about it, you
might say the words ‘energy’ and ‘voltage’. We know, for example, that great
amounts of electrical energy can be stored in batteries, are transmitted cross-
country through power lines, and may jump from clouds to explode the sap of
trees. We also know about voltages associated with electricity. Batteries are typi-
cally a few volts, the outlets in your home produce 220 volts, and power lines can
be as high as hundreds of thousands of volts. But energy and voltage are not the
same thing. A motorcycle battery, for example, is small and would not be very suc-
cessful in replacing the much larger car battery, yet each has the same voltage.
In this unit, we shall examine the relationship between voltage and electri-
cal energy and begin to explore some of the many applications of electricity.
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to: Relate the electric potential
with work, potential energy, and electric field; and determine the electric potential
D
Just as there is gravitational potential energy by virtue of an object’s po-
sition in a gravitational field, there is also Electrical potential energy by virtue
of an object’s position in an electric field. And, charged particles can flow and
generate current just like water in a river can flow and generate its own kind of
current. Oppositely charged particles because of their charge, have the potential
to accelerate towards each other just like an object on the edge of a cliff has the
potential to accelerate toward the Earth because of its mass. And in each case,
it is the field that does the work to produce the acceleration.
Learning Task 1: Make a Venn Diagram Comparing the Electrical Force
with Gravitational Force.
3
Learning Task 2: Hidden Message
This puzzle is a word search puzzle that has a hidden message in it. First find all the
words in the list. Words can go in any direction. Words can share letters and they cross over
each other. Once you find all the words. Copy the unused letters starting in the top left corner
into the blanks to reveal the hidden message.
COULOMB DIFFERENCE ELECTRICAL
ELECTRON ENERGY EQUIPOTENTIAL
FIELD GRAVITATIONAL JOULES
POTENTIAL PROTON UNIFORM
VOLT VOLTAGE WORK
Hidden message:
Electric Potential Energy: Potential Difference
When a free positive charge is accelerated by an electric field, such as shown in
below, it is given kinetic energy. The process is analogous to an object being accelerated
by a gravitational field. It is as if the charge is going down an electrical hill where its
electric potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. Let us explore the work done on
a charge by the electric field in this process, so that we may develop a definition of
electric potential energy.
A charge accelerated by an electric field is analogous to a mass going down a hill. In
both cases potential energy is converted to another form. Work is done by a force, but
since this force is conservative, we can write
The electrostatic or Coulomb force is conservative, which means that the work
done on q is independent of the path taken. This is exactly analogous to the gravitation-
al force in the absence of dissipative forces such as friction. When a force is conserva-
tive, it is possible to define a potential energy associated with the force, and it is usually
easier to deal with the potential energy (because it depends only on position) than to cal-
culate the work directly.
We use the letters PE to denote electric potential energy, which has units of
Joules (J). The change in potential energy, , is crucial, since the work done by a
conservative force is the negative of the change in potential energy; that is, .
For example, work W done to accelerate a positive charge from rest is positive and re-
sults from a loss in PE, or a negative . There must be a minus sign in front of
to make W positive. PE can be found at any point by taking one point as a reference and
calculating the work needed to move a charge to the other point.
Gravitational potential energy and electric potential energy are quite analogous.
Potential energy accounts for work done by a conservative force and gives added insight
regarding energy and energy transformation without the necessity of dealing with the
force directly. It is much more common, for example, to use the concept of voltage
(related to electric potential energy) than to deal with the Coulomb force directly.
5
Calculating the work directly is generally difficult, since and the direc-
tion and magnitude of F can be complex for multiple charges, for odd-shaped objects, and
along arbitrary paths. But we do know that, since F = qE, the work, and hence ,
is proportional to the test charge q To have a physical quantity that is independent of test
charge, we define electric potential V (or simply potential, since electric is understood) to
be the potential energy per unit charge:
Since PE is proportional to q, the dependence on q cancels. Thus, V does not depend
on q. The change in potential energy is crucial, and so we are concerned with the
difference in potential or potential difference between two points, where
The potential difference between points A and B, VB - VA, is thus defined to be the
change in potential energy of a charge q moved from A to B, divided by the charge. Units of
potential difference are Joules per Coulomb, given the name volt (V) after Alessandro Volta.
One volt is the potential difference between two points in an electric field if one joule
of work is done in moving one coulomb of charge from the one point to the other.
The familiar term voltage is the common name for potential difference. Keep in mind
that whenever a voltage is quoted, it is understood to be the potential difference between
two points. For example, every battery has two terminals, and its voltage is the potential
difference between them. More fundamentally, the point you choose to be zero volts is arbi-
trary. This is analogous to the fact that gravitational potential energy has an arbitrary zero,
such as sea level or perhaps a lecture hall floor.
In summary, the relationship between potential difference (or voltage) and electrical
potential energy is given by
than the other since . The car battery can move more charge than the mo-
torcycle battery, although both are 12 V batteries.
6
Voltage is not the same as energy. Voltage is the energy per unit charge. Thus, a mo-
torcycle battery and a car battery can both have the same voltage (more precisely, the same
potential difference between battery terminals), yet one stores much more energy than the
other since . The car battery can move more charge than the motorcycle battery,
although both are 12 V batteries.
Conservation of Energy
The total energy of a system is conserved if there is no net addition (or subtraction) of
work or heat transfer. For conservative forces, such as the electrostatic force, conservation
of energy states that mechanical energy is a constant.
Mechanical energy is the sum of the kinetic energy and potential energy of a system;
that is, . A loss of PE of a charged particle becomes an increase in its
KE. Here PE is the electric potential energy. Conservation of energy is stated in equation
form as
where i and f stand for initial and final conditions. As we have found many times before,
considering energy can give us insights and facilitate problem solving.
Worked Example
Question: What is the potential difference between two point in an electric field if it takes
600J of energy to move a charge of 2C between these two points?
Answer
Step 1 : Determine what is required
We need to calculate the potential difference (V) between two points in an electric
field.
Step 2 Determine what is given
We are given both the charges and the energy or work done to move the charge be-
tween the two points.
Step 3 : : Determine how to approach the problem
We will use the equation:
Step 4 : Solve the problem
7
E
Learning Task 3: Make a diagram about the relationship of electric potential with
work, potential energy and electric field. Explain your work.
Learning Task 4: Solve for the following problems.
1. How much work is needed to move a −9.5 charge from ground to a point
whose potential is +75 V. (Always check the units)
2. How much work is needed to move a proton from a point with a potential of
+75 V to a point where it is –25V?
3. An electron falls through a potential difference of 21,000 V in a TV picture
tube. How much kinetic energy will the electron gain?
8
A
Learning Task 5: Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer.
1. What is the potential difference between two points if 1J of work is required to move
1C of charge between two points in an electric field?
A. 1.0 * 10 0 V
B. 9.0 * 109 V
C. 6.3 * 1018 V
D. 1.6 * 10-19 V
2. The diagram below represents a positively charged particle about to enter the electric
field between two oppositely charged parallel plates.
The electric field will deflect the particle:
A. Into the page
B. Out of the page
C. Toward the top of the page
D. Toward the bottom of the page
3. Which electrical unit is equivalent to 1J?
A. V/m
B. A*V
C. V/C
D. C*V
4. If 60J of work is required to move 5C of charge between two points in an electric field,
what is the potential difference between these points?
A. 5 V
B. 12 V
C. 60 V
D. 300 V
5. Which combination of units can be used to express electrical energy?
A. V/C
B. C/V
C. V*C
D. V*C*s
9
A
6. Which among the following is true?
A. Gravitational potential is a location-dependent quantity that is independent of the
mass of the object experiencing the field.
B. Gravitational potential is a location-dependent quantity that is dependent of the
mass of the object experiencing the field
C. Gravitational potential is a location-dependent quantity that is independent of the
charge of the object experiencing the field
D. Gravitational potential is a location-dependent quantity that is dependent of the
charge of the object experiencing the field
7. Electric potential energy is dependent upon at least which two quantities?
A. Distance from source and mass of an object
B. Distance from the core and mass of an object
C. Electric charge and distance from source
D. Electric charge and Mass of an object
8. What is the potential energy per charge?
A. Electrostatics
B. Electric potential
C. Electric field
D. Potential difference
9. What is the difference in electric potential between the final and the initial location
when work is done upon a charge to change its potential energy?
A. Electrostatics
B. Electric potential
C. Electric field
D. Potential difference
10. If the electric potential difference between two locations is 3 Volts, how many Cou-
lombs of charge will gain 3 Joules of potential energy?
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3
10
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Learning Task 1:
Similarities:
Inverse square forces
Learning Task 2:
Answers
12
Learning Task 4:
1.W= -7.1 * 10-4 J
2.W= -1.60 * 10-17 J
3.W= 3.4 * 10-15 J
Learning Task 5:
1.A
2.D
3.D
4.B
5.C
6.A
7.C
8.B
9.D
10.B
References
Reference Listing
Books:
Urone, P. P., & Hinrichs, R. (2012). College Physics by OpenStax (hardcover version,
full color) (1st ed.). XanEdu Publishing Inc.
Young, H. D., Freedman, R. A., & Ford, L. A. (2011). Sears and Zemansky’s University
Physics with Modern Physics, 13th Edition (13th ed.). Addison-Wesley.
FHSST Authors. (2007). The Free High School Science Texts: Textbooks for High School
Students Studying the Sciences Physics Grades 10-12. Free high School Science
Texts.
Fullerton, D. (2015). The Ultimate Regents Physics Question and Answer Book: 2016
Edition (2nd ed.). Silly Beagle Productions.
Websites:
Sydney University Physics Education Research Group. (n.d.). Life Sciences Lecture
Notes. Http://Www.Physics.Usyd.Edu.Au/. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/life_sciences/
Professor Dave Explains. (2017, April 12). Electric Potential, Current, and Resistance
[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWlZ9bfGIoI
Hoodbhoy, P. A. (n.d.). An Introduction to Physics. Virtual University of Pakistan.
https://vulms.vu.edu.pk/Courses/PHY101/Downloads/PHY101%20handout%
20complete.pdf
Henderson, T. (n.d.). Physics Tutorial: Electric Potential. The Physics Classroom. Retrieved
February 5, 2021, from https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circuits/Lesson-1/
Electric-Potential
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Para sa mga katanungan o puna, sumulat o tumawag sa:
Department of Education Division Rizal Office
Address: DepEd Bldg.,Cabrera Rd.,Bgy. Dolores,Taytay,Rizal 1920
Telephone number: 09274562115/09615294771
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