The [[electric potential energy]] of a system is defined as the amount of [[Work (physics)|physical work]] it would take to move all the charges in the sytemsystem from very far away to the configuration that they are currently in and can be thought of as the energy stored in the electric field for a given configuration of charges.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grant, I. S. (Ian S.)|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21447877|title=Electromagnetism|date=1990|publisher=Wiley|others=Phillips, W. R. (William Robert)|isbn=0-471-92711-2|edition=2nd|___location=Chichester [England]|pages=33|oclc=21447877}}</ref> Another way of thinking about the electric potential energy is as analogously to [[Gravitational energy|gravitational potential energy]]; like a mass released from high up will convert its gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy as it falls to the ground, separated charges will convert their electric potential energy to kinetic energy as they are accelerated either attractively towards one another or repulsively away from one another.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Young, Hugh D., Freedman, Roger A.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/897436903|title=Sears and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern Physics|publisher=[[Pearson PLC|Pearson]]|year=2016|isbn=978-0-321-97361-0|edition=14th|___location=Boston|pages=776–778, 783|oclc=897436903}}</ref>
The [[electric potential]] of a system is defined as the electric potential energy per unit charge:<ref name=":7" />
