brief summary : concept of fields and "POTENTIAL ENERGY"

FIELD (The term was coined by none other than Michael Faraday)
A field is a physical quantity that has a value for each point in space and time
.
A field can be classified as a scalar field, a vector field, a spinor field or a
tensor field according to whether the value of the field at each point is a sca
lar, a vector, a spinor or a tensor, respectively.
difference b/w scalar and vector field: in a scalar field we just assign magnitu
des to every point, unlike a vector field where we also assign a direction
Examples of scalar field: temp, pressure,
distance
Examples of vector field: Force,displacem
ent
(Explanation via distance and displacement in a co-od s/m, and invariance of sc
alar field in case of rotational transformation)
usually the most common field that we encounter is a force field i.e the force a
cting on a particle due to its presence in the field.
they can be of two types: conservative and non-conservative.
--> the net work done by a conservative field on an object taken around a closed
loop/path is zero.
This is just another way of saying that a conservative field stores energy witho
ut loss: i.e., if an object gives up a certain amount of energy to a conservativ
e field in traveling from point A to point B, then the field returns this energy
to the object--without loss--when it travels back to point A.ex:gravitational f
orce field.
--> the net work done by a non-conservative field on an object taken around a cl
osed loop/path is non-zero.
This is just another way of saying that a non-conservative field dissipates ener
gy: i.e., if an object gives up a certain amount of energy to a non-conservative
field in traveling from point A to point B, then the field only returns part, o
r, perhaps, none, of this energy to the object when it travels back to point A.
The remainder is usually dissipated as heat.ex: frictional force field.
force field is a vector field that describes a non-contact force acting on a par
ticle at various positions in space
**Some forces, including friction, air drag, and the magnetic force on a charged
particle, depend on the particle's velocity as well as its position. Therefore
these forces are not characterized by a force field.
POTENTIAL ENERGY
If the work of a force
position is determined
rajectory of the body,
an be evaluated at the

field acting on a body that moves from a start to an end

only by these two positions, and does not depend on the t
then there is a function known as potential energy that c
two positions to determine this work.

****potential energy is the energy difference between the energy of an object in

a given position and its energy at a reference position.
The action of stretching the spring or lifting the mass is performed by an exter
nal force that works against the force field of the potential. This work is stor
ed in the force field, which is said to be stored as potential energy. If the ex
ternal force is removed the force field acts on the body to perform the work as

it moves the body back to the initial position, reducing the stretch of the spri
ng or causing a body to fall.
The work done by a conservative force is
\,W = -\Delta U
where \Delta U is the change in the potential energy associated with the force.
The negative sign provides the convention that work done against a force field i
ncreases potential energy, while work done by the force field decreases potentia
l energy.