Replies

But, with our extended senses, we can certainly sense all the components required to calculate potential energy.

Consider the example of picking up a rock from Earth, taking it in a spacecraft to a planet much more massive than Earth, outside the Solar System, and then dropping it near where this particular planet can begin to attract this rock towards itself. Certainly there will be a change in potential energy that will manifest itself in other forms of energy due to the interaction. Now, could you have calculated how much potential energy that rock on Earth possessed, prior to it being released in the other, massive planet?

D-fendr, I will reply to your reply to my comment regarding randomness, tomorrow because there's room for elaboration and clarification.

Consider the example of picking up a rock from Earth, taking it in a spacecraft to a planet much more massive than Earth, outside the Solar System, and then dropping it near where this particular planet can begin to attract this rock towards itself.

I think I'm going to show my ignorance here. Does this mean potential energy is completely quantified by gravitation and mass?

What if you transport a massive rock to a weightless environment? Have you decreased its potential energy? Wouldn't this violate conservation of energy?

Now, could you have calculated how much potential energy that rock on Earth possessed, prior to it being released in the other, massive planet?

Are you referring to two-body gravitational potential energy or total gravitational binding energy?