- #1
assaftolko
- 171
- 0
I have a problem where two stars are at a certain time r0 apart from each other. They both has the mass of m, and at that time one of them is at rest and the other has the speed of v0 in the opposite direction of the gravity force that the other star exerts upon him. I need to find the maximal distance between them. now it's quite easy using energy and momentum conservation, but what I don't understand is why in the solution they say that the potential gravitational energy of this system at the beginning is -Gm*m/r0. this is the potential energy of each one of the stars, so isn't this suppose to be doubled for the whole system? I'm confused...