What Is Gravitational Potential Energy? Definition, Equations, and Example Problems

Potential energy (sometimes called "stored energy") is energy associated with the positions of objects in a system. Those objects must also be exerting forces on one another such that they will tend to move toward certain arrangments.

Gravitational potential energy is the energy of objects attracting each other by a gravitational force. While all objects do this, we will most commonly care about large objects (such as planets, moons, or stars), and their interactions with other objects (large or small). The most common example we'll deal with is the energy of objects some distance from the Earth, usually slightly above the Earth's surface. As such, we have both a general formula for calculating gravitational potential energy for any pair of objects, large or small, near to each other or far apart, and a shortcut formula for objects near Earth's surface.

This video explains the meaning for gravitational potential energy, the two equations for calculating GPE, and gives and example calculation with each.