Question

differentiate between electric potential and potential difference/?//

Answer 1

 Electric potential is the force required to move a charge through a circuit. Now consider the circuit and a battery. The battery is a standard 'D' cell that has a 1.5 volt potential. from one end of the battery to the other we will connect three resistors in series. Each resistor is 100 ohms. Since the potential of the battery is 1.5 volts the resistor string has 1.5 volts across it when strung from one end of the battery to the other. Since the resistors are all the same (100 Ohms), each resistor will have 0.5 volts across it, adding up to 1.5 volts. The full 'potential' of the battery is 1.5 volts while the 'potential difference' across each resistor is 0.5 volts. Potential is the term for the force while potential difference is the term for the force felt across one or more of the individual components in a circuit (the local voltage).