gravitational potential energy


gravitational potential energy

[‚grav·ə′tā·shən·əl pə¦ten·chəl ′en·ər·jē] (mechanics) The energy that a system of particles has by virtue of their positions, equal to the work that must be done against gravitational forces to assemble the particles from some reference configuration, such as mutually infinite separation. Also known as gravitational energy.