Because in the presence of an electric field a charged particle experiences a force, in the presence of an electric field a charged particle has potential energy. The energy of a charged particle of charge q in an electric field is given by
where
is the electric potential at the position of the particle. The electric potential at distance
from a charge
is
A graph of againstis shown below.
If we have several charges, each giving rise to a potential field then we can find the net potential at a point by adding the potentials due to the individual charges.
Potential at P due to
Potential at P due to
Potential at P due to
and