What two things does gravitational potential energy depend on?

1 Answer
Dec 2, 2015

Mass of the object and the distance between 2 objects of interest.

Explanation:

We have the equation

E_"gravity"=-GMm/r
G is the universal gravitational constant.
M is the mass of the object that provides the gravitational field.
m is the test object.
r is the distance between object with mass M and the location of your object with mass m.

From the equation, potential energy is proportional to M and inversely proportional to r.

It does not depend on G because the universal gravitational constant is well, constant. May have a different value in another universe though.