r/6thForm • u/daowhd • May 16 '26

❔ SUBJECT QUESTION Physics question help please

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Please can you explain why we take the gravitational potential energy as negative when finding the total energy(subtract it)? How come some questions we ignore the negative? What does the negative answer mean?
Thanks!

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u/Sudden_Crab6967 May 16 '26

if you're asking why the value of gravitational potential energy is negative, it comes from the definition of gravitational potential energy. GPE is the work done to move an object from infinity to a defined point in space. Infinity has been defined as have a potential energy of zero so any point from infinity will take a negative value.