What is the gravitational potential at a point infinitely far away from a mass?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the gravitational potential at a point infinitely far away from a mass?
Zero
Positive
Negative
Undefined
The gravitational potential at a point infinitely far away from a mass is defined to be zero.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: What is the gravitational potential at a point infinitely far away from a mass?
Solution: The gravitational potential at a point infinitely far away from a mass is defined to be zero.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what gravitational potential means. It is the potential energy per unit mass at a point in a gravitational field.
Step 2: Recognize that gravitational potential depends on the distance from the mass creating the gravitational field.
Step 3: Consider a point that is infinitely far away from any mass. At this distance, the effect of the mass on gravitational potential becomes negligible.
Step 4: By convention, we define the gravitational potential at an infinite distance from a mass to be zero.
Step 5: Therefore, the answer to the question is that the gravitational potential at a point infinitely far away from a mass is zero.
