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For this the gravitational force, i.e. the gradient of the potential, must be computed. Efficient recursive algorithms have been designed to compute the gravitational force for any N z {\displaystyle N_{z}} and N t {\displaystyle N_{t}} (the max degree of zonal and tesseral terms) and such algorithms are used in standard orbit propagation software.
A corollary is that inside a solid sphere of constant density, the gravitational force within the object varies linearly with distance from the center, becoming zero by symmetry at the center of mass. This can be seen as follows: take a point within such a sphere, at a distance from the center of the sphere. Then you can ignore all of the ...
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.
The Hill sphere is a common model for the calculation of a gravitational sphere of influence. It is the most commonly used model to calculate the spatial extent of gravitational influence of an astronomical body (m) in which it dominates over the gravitational influence of other bodies, particularly a primary (M). [1]
This also can be expressed (multiplying by the gravitational constant G in order to change units) as newtons per kilogram of attracted mass. Potential is expressed as gravity times distance, m 2 ·s −2. Travelling one metre in the direction of a gravity vector of strength 1 m·s −2 will increase your potential by 1 m 2 ·s −2.
A gravitational potential function can be written for the change in potential energy for a unit mass that is brought from infinity into proximity to the Earth. Taking partial derivatives of that function with respect to a coordinate system will then resolve the directional components of the gravitational acceleration vector, as a function of ...
For two pairwise interacting point particles, the gravitational potential energy is the work that an outside agent must do in order to quasi-statically bring the masses together (which is therefore, exactly opposite the work done by the gravitational field on the masses): = = where is the displacement vector of the mass, is gravitational force acting on it and denotes scalar product.
For a spherical body of uniform density, the gravitational binding energy U is given in Newtonian gravity by the formula [2] [3] = where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the sphere, and R is its radius.