What is the difference between electric potential and potential energy?

Question

I get so confused is the electric potential some sort of field?

Answer 1

I believe the difference is that potential energy can refer to any type of energy in its potential form, while electric potential refers to how much potential energy in the form of electricity there is.

Answer 2

The answer above has it backwards.  Or maybe he just flipped some initials or those initials are in another language or something.  (And still has it wrong after writing it out).

Let's write it out for clarity.

Electrostatic potential is the electrostatic potential energy PER charge

And yes, electrostatic potential is a field.  So it potential energy.  They are functions over all space.

The answer below isn't quite correct.  Potential energy comes in many flavors.  Gravitational potential energy is one, electrostatic potential energy is another.  You can have spring potential energy.  Any conservative force has an associated potential field (of which the force is minus the gradient).

Answer 3

They're quite similar, but one is derived from the electromagnetic force (electrons squashed together, effectively) and the other is derived from the gravitational force (masses pulled apart).

They both release as kinetic energy if allowed to.

Answer 4

POTENTIAL ENERGY= ELECTRIC POTENTIAL ENERGY / CHARGE

the electric potential is the potential energy per unit of charge that is associated with a static (time-invariant) electric field.

p.s.

i edited my post