What is an equipotential in an electric/gravitational field?

Equipotentials are lines of constant potential. In radial fields they join points of equal potential and are perpendicular to the field lines.
They are concentric spherical surfaces about the centre of the body and get further apart because the field gets weaker - you move a greater distance before you get the same ΔV.

CD
Answered by Chris D. Physics tutor

12392 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

A ball is thrown out of a window 18m off the ground. It is thrown horizontally at 0.5m/s. Show that it takes about 2s to reach the ground


A car moves from rest and accelerates uniformly at 4m/s/s, how far will it have traveled after 10 seconds?


Single electrons travelling at 550 ms^-1 are passed through a diffraction grating with a spacing between the slits of 2.5 micrometers. What would the angle between the zeroth and first maximum of the resulting interference pattern be?


Two pellets are fired simultaneously from the horizontal, one is fired vertically at 100m/s and the other is fired at 200m/s at an angle theta from the horizontal. Calculate the angle of the second pellet if they both land at the same time.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning