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Hello, I am a TA for a university physics lab. We are trying to see if KSP EDU can be used in our lab sections to discuss gravity and orbits, but the potential energy that is given on the energy spheres seems to be incorrect. According to pretty much everyone in physics, orbital potential energy is given by U = -GMm/r Where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the planet, m is the mass of the orbiting body, and r is the distance from the center of the planet. I'm ok with the negative not being present in game, as a negative volume sphere would be rather hard to depict. Unfortunately, the energy sphere says that, at an apoapsis of 8,600,000 m from the center of kerbin, the potential energy is 120,000 kJ. When I calculate the potential energy, I get 8,833,106 KJ. Can anyone explain why this is happening? Thanks
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- energy sphere
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