Potential vs Actual - What's the difference?
potential | actual |
Currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to )
(physics) The or the gravitoelectric field.Novello, M. ?
(physics) The work (energy) required to move a reference particle from a reference location to a specified location in the presence of a force field, for example to bring a unit positive electric charge from an infinite distance to a specified point against an electric field.
(grammar) A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.
Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
(archaic) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential.
(physics) A potential field is an irrotational (static) field.
(physics) A is an irrotational flow.
(grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.
Existing in act or reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Factual, real, not just apparent or even false.
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1 (dated) In action at the time being; now existing; current.
(obsolete) Active, not passive.
* Shakespeare
* Jeremy Taylor
Used to emphasise a noun or verb, whether something is real or metaphorical.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= An actual, real one; notably:
# (finance) Something actually received; real receipts, as distinct from estimated ones.
# (military) A radio callsign modifier that specifies the commanding officer of the unit or asset denoted by the remainder of the callsign and not the officer's assistant or other designee.
Actual is a antonym of potential.
As nouns the difference between potential and actual
is that potential is currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to while actual is an actual, real one; notably.As adjectives the difference between potential and actual
is that potential is existing in possibility, not in actuality while actual is existing in act or reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.potential
English
Noun
(en noun)- Even from a young age it was clear that she had the potential to become a great musician.
VII Brazilian School of Cosmology and Gravitation, Rio de Janeiro, August 1993] Atlantica Séguier Frontières, 1994, p. 257 ? "In general, a system can have both translational and rotational accelerations, however. It follows from Einstein's principle of equivalence that locally—i.e., to the extent that spacetime curvature can be neglected—gravitational effects are the same as inertial effects; therefore, gravitation can be approximately described in terms of gravitoelectric and gravitomagnetic fields corresponding to translational and rotational inertia, respectively. This is the gravitational Larmor theorem, which is very useful in the post-Newtonian approximation to general relativity. The gravitomagnetic field of a massive rotating body is a measure of its absolute rotation."''Thorne, Kip S. ? [http://einstein.stanford.edu/content/sci_papers/papers/nz-Thorne_101.pdf#page=3&view=FitV Gravitomagnetism, Jets in Quasars, and the Stanford Gyroscope Experiment] From the book "Near Zero: New Frontiers of Physics" (eds. J. D. Fairbank, B. S. Deaver, Jr., C. W. F. Everitt, P. F. Michelson), W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, 1988, pp. 3, 4 (575, 576) ? ''"From our electrodynamical experience we can infer immediately that any rotating spherical body (e.g., the sun or the earth) will be surrounded by a radial gravitoelectric (Newtonian) field ''g''''' and a dipolar gravitomagnetic field '''''H'' . The gravitoelectric monopole moment is the body's mass M; the gravitomagnetic dipole moment is its spin angular momentum S."''Grøn, Øyvind; Hervik, Sigbjørn ? [http://books.google.com/books?id=IyJhCHAryuUC&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=%22The+gravitoelectric+field+is+the+Newtonian+part+of+the+gravitational+field,+while+the+gravitomagnetic+field+is+the+non-Newtonian+part.%22&source=bl&ots=vF8KM_toq1&sig=5rqHuClm2mU_RdeMVPP0xPth7bA&hl=en&ei=Pd8DTd-kLMLrOdKx0LsB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with Modern Applications in Cosmology Springer, 2007, p. 203 ? ''"In the Newtonian theory there will not be any gravitomagnetic effects; the Newtonian potential is the same irrespective of whether or not the body is rotating. Hence the gravitomagnetic field is a purely relativistic effect. The gravitoelectric field is the Newtonian part of the gravitational field, while the gravitomagnetic field is the non-Newtonian part."
Adjective
(-)- The heroic man,—and is not every man, God be thanked, a potential hero?—has to do so, in all times and circumstances. Carlyle, Thomas ? Chartism ? Chapman & Hall, 1858, p. 229
- And hath, in his effect, a voice potential Shakespeare, William ? Othello ? 1603
- From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = ?''grad''?(r).''
''Soviet Physics, Uspekhi
v. 40, issues 1–6, American Institute of Physics, 1997, p. 39
- The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational). Volovik, Grigory E. ?
The Universe in a Helium Droplet
Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 60
References
External links
* * ----actual
English
Adjective
(-)Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution, passage=They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
citation, passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
- her walking and other actual performances.
- Let your holy and pious intention be actual ; that is given to God.
The machine of a new soul, passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.}}
Usage notes
* In some foreign languages the counterpart of (actual) means “current”. This meaning also occurs in English written by non-native speakers, but is nonstandard English. * The phrase (term) is criticised by many as redundant., page 3Synonyms
* (existing in act or reality) real * (in action at the time being) present * positiveAntonyms
* (existing in act or reality) potential, possible, virtual, speculative, conceivable, theoretical, nominal, hypothetical, estimated * (in action at the time being) future, pastDerived terms
* actualism * actualist * actuality * actualize * actualization * actuallyNoun
(en noun)- "Bravo Six Actual , Snakebite leader" (The person with the callsign "Snakebite leader" requests to speak to the commander of company Bravo and not the radio operator.)