Does Potential Energy Always Decrease with Conservative Force?

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pratikaman
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is it true that potential energy of a particle always decreases in the direction of conservative force acting on it.
 
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hi pratikaman! :smile:
pratikaman said:
is it true that potential energy of a particle always decreases in the direction of conservative force acting on it.

potential energy is defined as minus the work done by a conservative force

so yes, if your displacement is in the direction of the force, the work done is positive, and so the potential energy difference is negative :wink:
 
ok take a inverse square force like A/r^2 always pointing towards origin. where 'A' is some constant and 'r' is distance from origin of force. then potential energy function for this is U= A/r + c . where c is arbitrary constant. then potential in this case increases in direction of force.