Potentials of potatoes: A surprise in Newtonian Gravity

Abstract

It is well known in Newtonian gravity that a spherically symmetric density distribution produces a force out side it which falls as the square of the distance. Surprisingly, the converse is not true ! Just because the force falls as inverse square out side a density distribution, you can not conclude that it must be spherically symmetric. This article, first in a news series, explores this and related issues.