Question

​​how does electric potential analogs to temperature?

Answer 1

Dear Student,

The electrical potential of a given system at a given point determines the potential energy, due to electric fields, of electric charges at that point. The electrical potential is therefore a scalar field with units of energy per unit of electric charge (joules/coulomb = volt).The electric field is the negative gradient of the electrical potential.

A scalar field has a magnitude, but no direction, at every point in space. Thus, electrical potential is analogous to temperature - every point in space has a given temperature, and temperature gradients (analogous to the electric field) determine the direction of heat flows.

Regards