Independence of Path
In Section 5.8, we found that the potential difference (“voltage”) associated with a path
in an electric field intensity
is
where the curve begins at point 1 and ends at point 2. Let these points be identified using the position vectors
and
The associated work done by a particle bearing charge
is
This work represents the change in potential energy of the system consisting of the electric field and the charged particle. So, it must also be true that
where
and
are the potential energies when the particle is at
and
, respectively. It is clear from the above equation that
does not depend on
; it depends only on the positions of the start and end points and not on any of the intermediate points along
. That is,
Since the result of the integration in Equation 5.9.5 is independent of the path of integration, any path that begins at
and ends at
yields the same value of
and
. We refer to this concept as independence of path.
The integral of the electric field over a path between two points depends only on the locations of the start and end points and is independent of the path taken between those points.
A practical application of this concept is that some paths may be easier to use than others, so there may be an advantage in computing the integral in Equation 5.9.5 using some path other than the path actually traversed.
Footnotes
Ellingson, Steven W. (2018) Electromagnetics, Vol. 1. Blacksburg, VA: VT Publishing. https://doi.org/10.21061/electromagnetics-vol-1 CC BY-SA 4.0
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