Electric potential and work

[inaccensa]

After reading many diff threads, I came to the following conclusions.

If you direct a system where it naturally wants to go, you decrease its PE and increase the kinetic energy. For electrons (low potential) moving towards protons (high potential), the PE decreases and kinetic increases. The work done in this case is positive. I 'm just confused with the formula

W = -PE, Since the final PE < Initial PE, change in PE is a negative no
= -(PEf- PEi)
= -(-PE)
= + work...is this how you come to positive work?

This is may be a dumb q, but once the electron has reached the proton, doesn't the KE change back to PE due to its position?

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[Tokspor]

After reading many diff threads, I came to the following conclusions.

If you direct a system where it naturally wants to go, you decrease its PE and increase the kinetic energy. For electrons (low potential) moving towards protons (high potential), the PE decreases and kinetic increases. The work done in this case is positive. I 'm just confused with the formula

W = -PE, Since the final PE < Initial PE, change in PE is a negative no
= -(PEf- PEi)
= -(-PE)
= + work...is this how you come to positive work?

This is may be a dumb q, but once the electron has reached the proton, doesn't the KE change back to PE due to its position?

I think the terms "low electrical potential" and "high electrical potential" were assigned relative to positive charges. What you labeled as "high potential" is only true for a positive charge--it's a place of positive charge and it's where it doesn't want to be. For a negative charge, this same place is actually a place of "low potential"--a place of positive charge is where it wants to be. So a negative charge is still going from high to low potential in the case you mentioned.