The gravitational potential at infinity is defined as what value?
Practice Questions
Q1
The gravitational potential at infinity is defined as what value?
0
1
-1
Undefined
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
The gravitational potential at infinity is defined as what value?
Step 1: Understand what gravitational potential means. It is a measure of the potential energy per unit mass at a point in a gravitational field.
Step 2: Recognize that gravitational potential can change depending on how far you are from a mass (like a planet or star).
Step 3: Realize that as you move further away from a mass, the gravitational pull becomes weaker.
Step 4: At a very large distance (infinity), the gravitational pull is so weak that it is considered to have no effect.
Step 5: Therefore, we define the gravitational potential at this point (infinity) to be 0, meaning there is no potential energy from gravity at that distance.
