Gravitational potential of a 1 kg mass in the sun's field at our location is about 109 J. According to Schwarzschild relation Ru = 2GMu /c2, the local cumulative gravitational potential originating from remote masses of the universe is about 108 times larger, i.e. about 1017 J. This according to E = mc2 is the energy equivalent of 1 kg mass. Is this just a circular conclusion?
No, mass and gravitational potentials are quite different things.
You can only correlate the mass and gravitational potential it itself produces.
ie mg = mMG/RR=force
derived from a gradient of
Gravit pot = -GM/R
"mass and gravitational potentials are quite different things."
Dear Juan, it appears that, at least, they are closely related.
Edit:
"You can only correlate the mass and gravitational potential it itself produces."
So gravitational potential of a mass shouldn't have any influence on external masses?
ok, to get total gravitational potential you can sum up the contribution from all masses. Of course it would have an influence on a local mass. But you still have to clearly distinguish mass from gravitational potential. Related , but other factors involved.
> But you still have to clearly distinguish mass from gravitational potential.
You dont even know if you can extrapolate the newtonian formalism to
very large distances, with the dark matter or dark energy complication.
The parallel session addresses a different issue.
Maybe, but the expansion of the universe has been upheld in Cosmology for some time already while normal gravity would make it contract.
They are not the same because mass has positive energy while gravitational potential is negative. The "free-lunch universe" model is based on the fact that the sum of all the mass (and radiation) in the universe appears to be equal but opposite to the total potential hence they add to zero.
"https://www.researchgate.net/project/Local-effects-of-remote-masses"
Unfortunately, the discussion on the above site has been unavailable since March 31, 2023, after general removal of "projects" on Research Gate. You can still find the discussion at
https://web.archive.org/web/20230120174916/https://www.researchgate.net/project/Local-effects-of-remote-masses
My initial question: "Is rest mass of a body equivalent to local accumulated gravitational potential originating from remote masses of the universe?"
... should better read: "Is rest mass of a body established by local accumulated gravitational potential originating from remote masses of the universe?"
E = mc^2
When it is not accidental that potential energy of a mass m at the level of local cumulative gravitational potential originating from remote masses of the universe equals E = mc^2, shouldn't it be worthwhile to reconsider Mach's principle ?
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