Topic summary
Electric potential energy
Electric potential energy is a potential energy (measured in joules) that results from conservativeCoulomb forces and is associated with the configuration of a particular set of point charges within a defined system. An object may be said to have electric potential energy by virtue of either its own electric charge or its relative position to other electrically charged objects.
The term "electric potential energy" is used to describe the potential energy in systems with time-variantelectric fields, while the term "electrostatic potential energy" is used to describe the potential energy in systems with time-invariant electric fields.