does the moon have potential energy due to earth's gravitational field or does the fact that the moon is . . .

Question

in equilibrium (Net force is zero) with earth and other planets mean that it is fact does not have any potential energy due to earth's gravitational field.

Also If I bounced a ball so high that it finally came to a stop in equilibrium with the other planets and began orbiting aroung the earth, does the ball have any potential energy then?

If there is anything I hate about yahoo answers it is the people who want to share with me information that is only marginally relevant to the question at hand. I know what kinetic energy is.

As for the top answer, i am well aware that the moon orbits the earth in an elliptical path. And yes they are in equillibrium as the moon doesn't accelerate towards the earth.

It's like if I asked about sigmund Freud's theory of the superego and you told me that he was born in Vienna (saw this situation in FRASIER). I know and that isn't what I asked!!!

Answer 1

The moon and the earth are not in equilibrium, they both orbit a point in space called a barycenter that is below the surface of the earth, but not in the center of the earth. This causes an imbalance in forces which is why the earth has tides, both bodies have/are experiencing a gradual slowing of rotation velocity, and the moon is actually being push to a higher orbit.

Answer 2

an exciting astronomical actuality is that the rotation of the Earth is getting bogged down by using fact that's tidally locked to the Moon. This slowing of the Earth’s rotation with conservation of angular momentum demands that the Moon circulate to a bigger distance faraway from the planet Earth. So, extra time, the Earth's rotating at a decrease velocity and the moon is moving further away, the Moon strikes faraway from us 3 inches from the Earth each and each twelve months. that's no longer sufficient to reason any significant adjustments in our lifetimes, we are speaking on astronomical scales, so some 50 billion years.

Answer 3

Not just the moon or the earth have a gravitational field but all other mass strutures in th Universe. The effect of the field varies according to the gravitational pressure level enveloping the mass.That Pressure level is called the Gravity potential ;it is measured as Energy per Unit mass.
The gravity pressure pushing the mass to hold it together is calculated as a function of the the product of the mass content of the mass and velocity of light squared divided by the volume of the mass.

Answer 4

Orbit is achieved when the speed of one object around another matches and balances the pull of gravity from the object that is the center of the attraction. The speed differs with the altitude from the central attraction and the mass of the orbiting object; whether it also has a gravity large enough to need to be considered.

Answer 5

All orbiting objects have both potential energy and kinetic energy. A stationary object would have only potential energy, but it would immediately start falling and so convert that potential energy to kinetic energy.

Answer 6

My goodness, if you know all this you should not be asking such a question, do you know paint stays on the side of a vertical wall?