Question

Is electric potential a scalar or a vector quantity?

Answer 1

Electric potential

1. In an electric field, an electric potential is defined as the amount of work required to transfer a charge from a reference point to a given point without acceleration.
2. To determine whether the electric potential due to a point charge is scalar or vector, we shall construct the formula for electric potential due to a point charge.

The formula for electric potential

$U=\frac{1}{4\pi {\epsilon }_0}\frac{Q}{r}[whereQ=charge,U=potentialenergy,r=dis\tan cebetweenpointandcharge]$

Analyzing the formula

1. The electrostatic potential is said to be dependent on charge and charge distance from the location where the electrostatic potential is to be calculated.
2. The charge and the distance are both scalar values. As a result, the scalar quantity is the electrostatic potential.

Hence, an electric potential is a scalar quantity.