gravitational potential energy
rallain | January 3, 2010Wow. In xkcd 681 comic, there is an impressive illustration of the common term "gravity well". Here is a small part of that large image:
I can't resist. I must talk about this awesome illustration. My goal for this post is to help someone understand that comic (although the comic itself does a pretty good job).
Energy
Energy is the key here. Here, I will talk about two types of energy - kinetic energy and field energy. In this case, kinetic energy is basically just the energy associated with something moving. Field energy is the energy stored in the gravitational field. You could…