Electric Potential in Circuits
As we begin to discuss electric circuits, we will notice that a battery powered electric circuit has locations of high and low potential. Charge moving through the wires of the circuit will encounter changes in electric potential as it traverses the circuit. Within the electrochemical cells of the battery, there is an electric field established between the two terminals, directed from the positive terminal towards the negative terminal. As such, the movement of a positive test charge through the cells from the negative terminal to the positive terminal would require work, thus increasing the potential energy of every Coulomb of charge that moves along this path. This corresponds to a movement of positive charge against the electric field. It is for this reason that the positive terminal is described as the high potential terminal. Similar reasoning would lead one to conclude that the movement of positive charge through the wires from the positive terminal to the negative terminal would occur naturally. Such a movement of a positive test charge would be in the direction of the electric field and would not require work. The charge would lose potential energy as moves through the external circuit from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. The negative terminal is described as the low potential terminal. This assignment of high and low potential to the terminals of an electrochemical cell presumes the traditional convention that electric fields are based on the direction of movement of positive test charges.
In a certain sense, an electric circuit is nothing more than an energy conversion system. In the electrochemical cells of a battery-powered electric circuit, the chemical energy is used to do work on a positive test charge to move it from the low potential terminal to the high potential terminal. Chemical energy is transformed into electric potential energy within the internal circuit (i.e., the battery). Once at the high potential terminal, a positive test charge will then move through the external circuit and do work upon the light bulb or the motor or the heater coils, transforming its electric potential energy into useful forms for which the circuit was designed. The positive test charge returns to the negative terminal at a low energy and low potential, ready to repeat the cycle (or should we say circuit) all over again.