Why do things(it may include positive charges or just water kept at height etc) move from Higher potential level to lower potential level Is that a law or there is some special reason behind it...or probably it is just the behaviour of nature
-
Welcome New contributor user265825! I've downvoted your question for the "does not show any research effort" reason. You might find the following helpful: How do I ask a good question?-"Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? Sharing your research helps everyone. Tell us what you found and why it didn’t meet your needs. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to try to help yourself, it saves us from reiterating obvious answers, and above all, it helps you get a more specific and relevant answer!" – Alfred Centauri May 28 '20 at 17:40
-
Also discussed in Why are thermodynamic potentials minimised?. – Chemomechanics May 30 '20 at 06:47
2 Answers
Differences in potential are defined in terms of the work which can be done by some force. Unless constrained, objects go where that force is pushing them.
- 12,139
-
-
For the potential to be meaningful, the force as a function of position should not change as a function of time. – R.W. Bird May 28 '20 at 19:25
-
From Conservative force: "If the force is not conservative, then defining a scalar potential is not possible, because taking different paths would lead to conflicting potential differences between the start and end points. – Alfred Centauri May 28 '20 at 21:52
It's rather the other way around: because things move in certain ways (the behavior of nature in your words), we define quantities, using maths, that help us describe how they move. The concept of energy, and potential energy, can be applied to so many physics phenomena in a consistent way, but we do not always have intuition about it.
For the examples you quote (electric and gravitational potential energy) the best way to give an explanation with words is through another mathematical concept: the force. We understand that a system moves in the direction of the applied force. The relation between force and potential energy is such that force always points towards lower potential energy.
However this is not general enough regarding the concept of potential energy. For example in thermodynamics, the force does not serve as a link between the potential energy and our human intuition. In that case there is actually a fundamental law of thermodynamics that states that the potential energy of (non-isolated) systems decreases until it reaches the equilibrium.
- 121