# Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

Chapter
Part of the Lecture Notes in Physics book series (LNP, volume 772)

For a spherical mass distribution, $$V(\vec r)=-mG\frac{M}{r}$$, with zero potential infinitely far from the centre of $$M$$. Newton’s law of gravitation is valid for “small” velocities, i.e. velocities much smaller than the velocity of light and “weak” fields. Weak fields are fields in which the gravitational potential energy of a test particle is very small compared to its rest mass energy. (Note that here one is interested only in the absolute values of the above quantities and not their sign.)

## Keywords

Black Hole Reference Frame Gravitational Field Gravitational Potential Inertial Frame

## References

1. 1.
Grøn, Ø. and Vøyenli, K. 1999. On the foundations of the principle of relativity, Found. Phys. 29, 1695–1733.
2. 2.
Brill, D. R. and Cohen, J. M. 1966. Rotating masses and their effect on inertial frames, Phys. Rev. 143, 1011–1015.
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