Question

What is Gravitational Potential?

Answer

The amount of the work done by the applied force required to bring a body of unit mass from reference position (i.e. infinite) to a given position within the field is known as gravitational potential of the field (created by mass). Gravitational potential due to the various mass distributions are described below: (i) Potential due to a point mass Gravitational potential at P, (ii) Potential at an axial point of a uniform ring Gravitational potential at point P, V_P = - Gm/√a² + r² where, a = Radius of the ring, M = Mass of the ring