Gravitational Potential Energy: Interactive visualisation of how energy becomes less negative as distance increases

Gravitational potential energy is negative

At Earth's surface, you're already trapped in a deep energy well — every kilogram of your mass holds about –63 MJ of gravitational potential energy. To escape to infinity where GPE equals zero, you must add energy to climb out of the negative. Drag the slider to lift a 1 kg mass away from Earth and watch how GPE increases toward zero.

Energy Well Visualisation
r = 1.0 R⊕
Drag slider to change orbital radius
GPE = –63.0 MJ/kg
Surface 5 R⊕ 10 R⊕
Distance
6,371 km
Escape Δ
63.0 MJ/kg

The universal formula E = –GMm/r works everywhere in a gravitational field, not just near Earth's surface. The negative sign is crucial: it means you're in an energy deficit relative to infinity. At infinity, r approaches ∞ and E approaches zero — that's the reference point. Closer to the mass, r is smaller, so E becomes more negative. To escape completely requires adding exactly |E| joules of energy to climb from your current negative value up to zero. This is why orbital mechanics uses negative energies: bound orbits have E < 0, and only objects with E ≥ 0 can escape.

Know This
GPE increases as you move away from a mass, becoming less negative and approaching zero at infinity — the familiar mgh formula is just the surface approximation where Δr ≪ R⊕.