It's a short form of electrostatic potential difference, which is the difference in the electrostatic potential between two points.
The eletrostatic potential is a field (a value associated with each point in space) that indicates how much energy would be required to put a charged particle at each point. But there is no energy associated with it until you also introduce that charged particle.
Another way to think of this is that the electrostatic potential energy (of some configuration of charges) is the energy associated with the arrangement of those charges in an electrostatic potential. But the potential, and the potential energy are two separate things and you should be careful to understand how they're separate and how they're related.
manpreet![Tuteehub forum best answer]()
Best Answer
2 years ago
Just a few days ago, we were taught the basics of electricity in the IGCSE Physics syllabus. While he's said a great deal about potential difference and how it's the difference in voltage between two points in a circuit, he never bothered describing what "potential" itself was.
From what I have learned both from our physics teacher and the Internet, I guess it is actually just the short form of "potential electrical energy".
If it is so, why is the term so less discussed?