The Potential well reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Potential well

A potential well is the region surrounding a local energy minimum.

If potential energy is imagined as corresponding to the height of the Earth's surface on a map, so that the resulting landscape of hills and valleys is a potential energy surface, then a potential well would be the region around a minimum of potential that could be filled with water without any flowing away toward another minimum.

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