Maxwell's celebrated equations, along with the Lorentz force, describe electrodynamics in a highly succinct fashion. However, what appears to be four elegant equations are actually eight partial differential equations that are difficult to solve for, given charge density ρ {\displaystyle \rho } and current density J , {\displaystyle \mathbf {J} ,} since Faraday's Law and the Ampere-Maxwell Law are vector equations with three components each. Reformulating Maxwell's equations in terms of potentials makes solving for the electric field E {\displaystyle \mathbf {E} } and the magnetic field B {\displaystyle \mathbf {B} } easier. In quantum electrodynamics, equations are formulated almost exclusively in terms of the potentials rather than the fields themselves.