<span>The distance between two objects is increased by three times the oringinal distance. Since they were already separated by one time the original distance, the additional three times the oringinal distance now puts them four times the original distance apart.
Whether we're talking about the gravitational forces of attraction or the electrical forces of attraction, either one is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects.
So changing the distance to four times the original distance causes the forces to become 1/4</span>² as strong as they were originally.
The forces become 1/16 of their original magnitude.<span> </span>
The total mechanical energy of the ball is the sum of its potential energy U and its kinetic energy K, therefore: so, the total mechanical energy of the basketball is 118 J.
