Gravitational Potential Energy Equation

Gravitational Potential Energy Equation

Today I'll be describing the basic equation for gravitational potential energy and demonstrating how to solve a few problems involving it.

To find out the Gravitational Potential Energy of an object this equation is used:

Where m is mass,

g is the gravitational field strength - which can vary in places, for example earths average gravitational field strength is 9.8N/kg.
and h is the objects height.

Problem Solving:

If a boy kicks a ball 4.5m height on planet x and another boy on planet y kicks a ball 6m, if the ball has a mass of 0.43kg which ball has the highest gravitational potential energy - the ball on planet x or the ball on planet y?

Now lets calculate the gravitational potential energy for each ball:

Planet x:

If the gravitational field strength for planet x is 5.4N/kg, g = 5.4.
we also know that h = 4.5 and m = 0.43.

So 5.4*0.43*4.5 = 10.4J

Planet y:

If the gravitational field strength for planet y is 3.6N/kg, g = 3.6.
and h = 6, and of course the ball still has a mass of 0.43kg.

So 3.6*.43*6 = 9.3J

So the ball on planet x had a higher gravitational potential energy.

Sorry for the short post but there's not many examples I can give of this equation without boring you to death. There's only so much of kicking a football or books on a bookshelf someone can take. But I hope you got the jist of that equation - and I'll focus on another tomorrow. Thanks for reading, Chris.