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The work done is given by the dot product of the two vectors, where the result is a scalar. When the force F is constant and the angle θ between the force and the displacement s is also constant, then the work done is given by: = If the force is variable, then work is given by the line integral:
Gravity field surrounding Earth from a macroscopic perspective. Newton's law of universal gravitation can be written as a vector equation to account for the direction of the gravitational force as well as its magnitude. In this formula, quantities in bold represent vectors.
It is the mechanical work done by the gravitational force to bring the mass from a chosen reference point (often an "infinite distance" from the mass generating the field) to some other point in the field, which is equal to the change in the kinetic energies of the objects as they fall towards each other. Gravitational potential energy ...
The gravitational potential (V) at a location is the gravitational potential energy (U) at that location per unit mass: =, where m is the mass of the object. Potential energy is equal (in magnitude, but negative) to the work done by the gravitational field moving a body to its given position in space from infinity.
A common misconception occurs between centre of mass and centre of gravity.They are defined in similar ways but are not exactly the same quantity. Centre of mass is the mathematical description of placing all the mass in the region considered to one position, centre of gravity is a real physical quantity, the point of a body where the gravitational force acts.
This is illustrated in the figure to the right: The work done by the gravitational force on an object depends only on its change in height because the gravitational force is conservative. The work done by a conservative force is equal to the negative of change in potential energy during that process.
Work is dependent on the displacement as well as the force acting on an object. As a particle moves through a force field along a path C, the work done by the force is a line integral: = This value is independent of the velocity /momentum that the particle travels along the path.
Arthur Stanley Mackenzie in The Laws of Gravitation (1899) reviews the work done in the 19th century. [28] Poynting is the author of the article "Gravitation" in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911). Here, he cites a value of G = 6.66 × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2 with a relative uncertainty of 0.2%.