Relationships between potential energy and distance

[henry3369]

Why is gravitational potential energy directly related to the distance of between two objects (mgh, so as distance increases, potential energy increases) while electric potential energy is inversely related (kq1q2/r,distance increases, electric potential energy decreases)?

 

[Svein]

Why is gravitational potential energy directly related to the distance of between two objects (mgh, so as distance increases, potential energy increases) while electric potential energy is inversely related (kq1q2/r,distance increases, electric potential energy decreases)?

Well, it isn't. If you look at it macroscopically, the gravity attraction is $\frac{Gm_{1}m_{2}}{d^{2}}$. See the similarity?
Locally, when a change in distance is small compared to the basic distance, the gravity attraction is almost constant and you can do the mgh thing.