The coefficients of potential determine the relationship between the charge and electrostatic potential (electrical potential), which is purely geometric:

where φi is the electrical potential on a conductor surface Si and Qi is the surface charge on conductor i. The coefficients of potential is the coefficients pij.
or more formally

Note that:
  1. pij = pji, by symmetry, and
  2. pij is not dependent on the charge,

The physical content of the symmetry is as follow:
if a charge Q on conductor j brings conductor i to a potential φ, then the same charge placed on i would bring j to the same potential φ.
In general, the coefficients is used when describing system of conductors, such as in the capacitor.

Table of contents
1 Theory
2 Example
3 Related coefficients

Theory


System of conductors. The electrostatic potential at point P is .

Given the electrical potential on a conductor surface Si (the equipotential surface or the point P chosen on surface i) contained in a system of conductors j = 1, 2, ..., n:

where Rji = |ri - rj|, i.e. the distance from the area-element daj to a particular point ri on conductor i. σj is not, in general, uniformly distributed across the surface. Let us introduce the factor fj that describes how the actual charge density differs from the average and itself on a position on the surface of the jth conductor:
or
Then,
can be written in the form
i.e.

Example

For a two-conductor system, the system of linear equations is

On a capacitor, the charge on the two conductors is equal and opposit: Q = Q1 = -Q2. Therefore,
and
Hence,

Related coefficients

Note that the array of linear equations
can be inverted to
where cii is called the coefficients of capacitance and the cij with i ≠ j is called the coefficients of induction.

The capacitance of this system can be expressed as

(the system of conductors can be shown to have similar symmetry cij = cij.)