All Questions
39
questions
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How Can there be a Gravitational Potential when there is NO Gravitational Field? [closed]
How does it make any logic that there exist a potential when there is no net field
for example when we have a Hollow Sphere with mass we can find out the the gravitational *potential inside the sphere ...
1
vote
2
answers
103
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Defintion of gravitational potential
I am not much clear regarding the defintion of "gravitational potential":
Is the work done for bringing the unit mass from infinity to that point by, gravitaional force or external force? (...
1
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2
answers
341
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Gravitational potential energy of a galaxy
How can the total gravitational potential energy of a galaxy be calculated?
Lets assume for simplicity that the entire galaxy follows an exponential mass density function for an infinitely small ...
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0
votes
1
answer
47
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What happens if we define the gravitational potential zero point at a finite distance? [duplicate]
Two questions.
Can we, and if so how do we define the gravitational potential of a mass (say the sun) to be zero at a finite distance (say 1 light year)?
How does this change the gravitational force ...
- 47
1
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1
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39
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What energy is transferred into potential? [closed]
This question could be really out of the blue and might receive lots of downvotes, but bugging me quite a time and would appreciate your thoughts easily explained.
We know that when we do work against ...
0
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3
answers
76
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Gravitational potential energy definition
"Gravitational potential energy of a system of masses is defined as the negative of the work done by gravitational force in bringing the masses from infinity to that configuration" ~ the ...
1
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1
answer
307
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Interpretation of gravitational potential in 2+1D
From Gauss's law of gravity reduced to 2+1 dimensions, one can easily show that the gravitational force follows an inverse law, i.e.
$$
\mathbf{F}(\mathbf{r}) =- \frac{G m M}{|\mathbf{r}|}\hat{\mathbf{...
- 111
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votes
3
answers
159
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How does gravitational potential relate to gravitational acceleration?
I've been wondering about what the gravitational potential V actually tells us, and how it relates to gravitational force and/or acceleration. The formula is $V = -\frac{GM}{r}$. I did some ...
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1
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377
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What is the gravitational potential due to two masses around one point?
Knowing that the formula for gravitational potential is the following.
$$V = -\frac{GM}{r}.$$
We take two masses in between one point let us say T. One mass is m and another 24m. Let us say that the ...
- 103
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votes
2
answers
239
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Direct calculation of the gravitational potential inside a hollow sphere
I calculated the gravitational potential inside a massive sphere with constant density and got the result:
$$\Phi = -2\pi G\rho R^2 + \frac{2}{3}\pi G\rho R_p^2$$
Where $R$ is the radius of the sphere ...
- 16.7k
1
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1
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938
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Relation Between Gravitational Potential and Acceleration due to gravity
I have always had this question in mind. I know expression for gravitational potential is given as
$$V=-\frac{GM}{r}$$
While acceleration due to gravity is given as
$$g=\frac{GM}{r}$$
So i assume
$$V=-...
- 11
2
votes
1
answer
96
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Infinite gravitational potential question
For this question I use Newtonian gravity only. Relativistic gravitational/kinematic effects are ignored.
It is known that the gravity surrounding a point particle of mass $M$ can be described by ...
user324471
-1
votes
3
answers
178
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Why gravitational potential away from a planet increases?
textbooks----
"potential increases towards infinity and is maximum at infinity"
But that is true only when we are seeing potential w.r.t Earth
EXPLANATION---------
So , as we know that ...
- 444
2
votes
2
answers
238
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Intuition behind gravitational potential
Gravitational potential at a point is equal to work done in bringing a unit mass from infinity to a particular point
That was the text book definition
$$V_{p} = -\frac{GM}{r}$$
If we calculate $V_p$ ...
0
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2
answers
1k
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Comparison of voltage to gravitational potential
I'm on my way understanding what Voltage is, and came across this great video explaining the concept of electrical potential using an analogy to gravitational potential. I'll write what I understood ...
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