Answer to Question #136398 in Electricity and Magnetism for Afraid

Question

Explain the potential due to point charge.

Answer 1

An electrostatic potential of a point charge is equal to the work needed to move an unit charge from a reference point (typically, the Earth or an infinity) to a specific point (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_potential).

It is a scalar quantity, it is measured in volts. Practically, electric potential is a continuous function in space. If we measure the potential of the charge Q at a distance r from the charge, it will be

$V_E = k_e\dfrac{Q}{r},$ where k_e is Coulomb's constant (k_e ≈ 8.99×10⁹ N⋅m²⋅C⁻²). Therefore, in such case the potential will tend to 0 as r tends to infinity, but tends to infinity if r tends to 0, so it is continuous everywhere except the origin.