3 ms·
Because everything in the real universe occupies a volume, and therefore no two distinct "things" can be 0 distance apart. The distance between two marbles' cen
by 10000truths 2mo ago
Because everything in the real universe occupies a volume, and therefore no two distinct "things" can be 0 distance apart. The distance between two marbles' center of masses is the sum of their radii. So if you want to measure the potential gravitational energy between the two marbles, you'd take the integral of (GM^2/x^2) dx between x = [sum of radii of marbles] and x = infinity, as an approximation.
- srean 2mo agoAh! I was talking about the abstraction of point masses, then there is the shell theorem. But now at least I understand the discrepancy. In any case gravitational potential at infinity is formally defined as 0 in Newtonian physics.