Question

For a positive charge moving in the direction of the electric field,its potential energy increases and its electric potential decreases.its potential energy decreases and its electric potential decreases.its potential energy decreases and its electric potential increases.its potential energy and its electric potential both remain constant.its potential energy increases and its electric potential increases.

Answer 1

Answer:

its potential energy decreases and its electric potential decreases.

Explanation:

Let's consider a radial field for simplicity. We have:

- The electric potential of the field is given by:

$V=\frac{kQ}{r}$

where

k is the Coulomb's constant

Q is the charge source of the field

r is the distance from Q

We see that the electric potential decreases as we move away from the source. If we consider a positive charge q moving in the direction of the electric field, this charge q will move away from the charge Q (because the field lines generated by the positive particle Q point away from the particle), so the electric potential will decrease.

- The potential energy of the moving charge is given by

$U=qV$

where q is the magnitude of the charge. As we said previously, V is decreasing while the charge is moving in the direction of the field, so since U is directly proportional to V, U will decrease as well.