Electric Field vs Electric Potential: Signs, Units and Worked Examples
Distinguish field, potential, force and energy. Compare two midpoint cancellations, read a potential graph and work through five explained practice questions.
Concordia University · PHYS 205
Concordia PHYS 205 tutoring
Electricity and Magnetism: one-to-one online tutoring and exam preparation.
Listed course
Course overview
Concordia PHYS 205 covers electric charge, fields and potential, capacitance, currents, electromagnetic induction, and alternating-current behaviour.
PHYS 205 topics to review
Charge and Coulomb’s lawElectric fields and potentialCapacitanceSteady and transient currentsElectromagnetic inductionAlternating currents
Common difficulties
- Adding electric fields as vectors but potential as a scalar
- Maintaining circuit-current and voltage sign conventions
Preparing for this course
Carry mechanics-style force and conservation reasoning into electric fields, potential and circuits. Review vector components and scientific notation.
Registration requirements
MATH 203 and PHYS 204 or equivalent must be completed previously.
Check the official course catalogueTry a course problem
Two perpendicular field components have magnitudes 3 and 4 in the same field unit. Find the magnitude (length) of the vector obtained by adding these components.
Show the reasoning
Let denote the resultant magnitude. Perpendicular components give field units. Doubling both gives : the magnitude doubles because the whole vector is multiplied by 2.
Connect changing flux to induced-current direction
Choose the viewing direction before saying clockwise or counterclockwise. The full lesson connects diagrams, Lenz’s law and the slope of flux, with six questions, hints and targeted retries. The calculus extension is labelled separately; follow your section’s methods.
How tutoring can help
You can bring a field or circuit question even if you do not know how to start. Your tutor can help you identify the quantity being asked for, draw the field directions or circuit connections and choose a sign convention. You can then build the equations together, keeping vector quantities such as electric field separate from scalar quantities such as potential, and check what the result means.
Exam preparation for PHYS 205
For transients, check initial and long-time behaviour. For field problems, draw directions before algebra. Interpret a negative current relative to the chosen direction.
Use your section’s outline to choose the chapters to review. We work through permitted practice and comparable problems, without completing graded assignments or exams on your behalf.
Independent practice
Free practice and study guides for PHYS 205
Kirchhoff’s Laws: Circuit Signs and Worked Examples
Choose current directions, write junction and loop equations, and interpret negative currents. Two worked DC circuits and five exercises with hints and solutions.
Capacitors: Charge, Voltage and Stored Energy
Solve capacitor networks, compare connection constraints, and study RC charging and discharging. Six worked examples and twelve questions with explained solutions.
Faraday and Lenz’s Laws: Flux, Signs and Current Direction
Find induced current direction from changing flux. Four direction cases, angle diagrams, flux-time graphs and six explained questions, with an optional calculus extension.
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