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Gravitational potential energy


Gravitational energy is the gravitational potential energy a body with mass has in relation to another massive object. It is potential energy associated with the gravitational field. Gravitational energy is dependent on the masses of two bodies, their distance apart and the gravitational constant (G).

In cases where the acceleration is fairly constant – such as dropping a ball on Earth – the gravitational energy of one of the bodies relative to the other is:

where is the gravitational energy (in Joules), is the mass of the object accelerating (in kilograms), is the acceleration of the object (in meters per second per second) and is the distance from the larger body (in meters). Note that this formula gives the potential energy and treats it as a positive number.


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