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The gravitational potential energy is the potential energy an object has because it is within a gravitational field. The magnitude & direction of gravitational force experienced by a point mass m {\displaystyle m} , due to the presence of another point mass M {\displaystyle M} at a distance r {\displaystyle r} , is given by Newton's law of ...
The gravitational potential (V) at a location is the gravitational potential energy (U) at that location per unit mass: =, where m is the mass of the object. Potential energy is equal (in magnitude, but negative) to the work done by the gravitational field moving a body to its given position in space from infinity.
There are various types of potential energy, each associated with a particular type of force. For example, the work of an elastic force is called elastic potential energy; work of the gravitational force is called gravitational potential energy; work of the Coulomb force is called electric potential energy; work of the strong nuclear force or weak nuclear force acting on the baryon charge is ...
Conversely, as two massive objects move towards each other, the motion accelerates under gravity causing an increase in the (positive) kinetic energy of the system and, in order to conserve the total sum of energy, the increase of the same amount in the gravitational potential energy of the object is treated as negative. [1]
A parabolic trajectory is depicted in the bottom-left quadrant of this diagram, where the gravitational potential well of the central mass shows potential energy, and the kinetic energy of the parabolic trajectory is shown in red. The height of the kinetic energy decreases asymptotically toward zero as the speed decreases and distance increases ...
An elliptical orbit is depicted in the top-right quadrant of this diagram, where the gravitational potential well of the central mass shows potential energy, and the kinetic energy of the orbital speed is shown in red. The height of the kinetic energy decreases as the orbiting body's speed decreases and distance increases according to Kepler's ...
The force is a vector field, which can be obtained as a factor of the gradient of the potential energy scalar field. Examples include: Potential fields, such as the Newtonian gravitational potential, or the electric potential in electrostatics, are scalar fields which describe the more familiar forces.
The potential energy, U, depends on the position of an object subjected to gravity or some other conservative force. The gravitational potential energy of an object is equal to the weight W of the object multiplied by the height h of the object's center of gravity relative to an arbitrary datum: =