The invisible force that shapes the cosmos
Gravitational potential at a point in space is the amount of work done per unit mass to bring a test mass from infinity to that point without acceleration. It is a scalar quantity and plays a crucial role in understanding gravitational fields, orbital motion, and cosmic structures.
Where:
• $ G $ = gravitational constant ( $ 6.674 \times 10^{-11} \, \text{N·m}^2/\text{kg}^2 $ )
• $ M $ = mass of the source body (e.g., Earth, Sun)
• $ r $ = distance from the center of mass
• The negative sign indicates that gravity is attractive.
Gravitational potential helps scientists:
Calculate the gravitational potential near Earth’s surface:
GPS satellites must account for differences in gravitational potential between Earth's surface and orbit—without corrections from general relativity, GPS locations would drift by kilometers per day!