Increase or decrease of electric potential energy depends on the distance or on the high of the two change?

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Solution

Electric potential is the amount of potential energy per unit charge. If you pick a distance r from a point charge, $q_{1}$ , the potential will be;

$V_{R} = k \times \frac{q_{1}}{r}$

$k$ is Coulomb's constant. When you place a second charge, $q_{2}$ , at r, the potential energy, $W$ , will be;

$W = V (r) q_{2}$ .

So potential is the scaling factor for the potential energy. Therefore, it increases as you get closer to the charge source.

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