Electric Potential
Air is normally an insulator, but under certain conditions, it can suddenly and temporarily change into a conductor, and we end up with a spark. In this video, we'll use the related concepts of electric fields and electric potential to explain how insulators can suddenly, dramatically and temporarily become conductors. This video is part of the Derivatives and Integrals video series. Hello. My name is John McGreevy. I am a professor in the physics department at MIT, and today I'll be talking with you about the electric field and electrical potential. To get the most out of this video you should already have some exposure to the electric field and electric potential. You should be able to take a mathematical expression for the field and obtain the potential, and vice versa. You should also know how to draw equipotential surfaces and electric field vectors. Throughout this video our goal is to help you gain a clearer picture of the electric field and the electric po...