Point mass - Definition and Overview

A point mass is in physics an idealisation of a body whose dimensions can be neglected compared to the distances of its movement.

It therefore differs from an idealised rigid body, from the point of view of kinematics. It has infinite density and no moment of inertia. Gravitational force and potential are unbounded.

See also

• Centripetal force
• Schwarzschild metric
• Potential energy
• Pendulum
• Kinematics
• Position vector