PCS 125 Lecture 2: PCS 125 Lecture 2
Document Summary
The gravitational field can be visualized by means of field lines which give the direction of the acceleration a particle would experience if placed in that field. In fact, the magnitude of the field and a given point is that of the freefall acceleration at that location. g above the earth"s surface. If an object is some distance h above the earth"s surface, r becomes. This shows that g decreases with increasing altitude. As r goes to infinity, the weight of the object approaches zero. The change in gravitational potential energy of a system associated with a given displacement of a member of the system is defined as the negative of the work done by the gravitational force on that member during the displacement. As a particle moves from a to b, its gravitational potential energy changes by u. Graph of the gravitational potential energy u versus r for an object above the earth"s surface.
