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Re: arbitrary choice of zero of potential



It sure appears contradictory to this unsophisticated teacher, Ludwik. I
believe statement 2 is closer to being accurate, although I fail to see why
the arbitrary zero point must be BETWEEN the particle and the center of the
planet. Being arbitrary, it could just as well be NOT between them.

Statement 1 (all potential energy must go to zero when the interacting
particles are infinitely far apart) would seem to be true only when the
infinitely far point is chosen (arbitrarily) to be the zero point.

Dr. Paul O. Johnson
Exhibit Developer
The Science Place
Dallas, Texas

----- Original Message -----
From: Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: arbitrary choice of zero of potential

. . . to an unsophisticated teacher the following two
statements do seem to be contradictory.

"All potential energy must go to zero when the interacting
particles are infinitely far apart."

" PEgrv = 0 can be chosen arbitrarily at any distance
between a particle and the center of our planet."

Why is this not a paradox? If PEgrv MUST be zero at
infinity then we should never allow it to be zero at other
places, for example, at the sea level or at Mount Everest.
Ludwik Kowalski