The theory of potential is the mathematical tool that serves the theoretical and numerical study of the gravitational field. The purpose of the book is to present the different procedures that are currently applied to calculate the gravitational signal of a known mass distribution. From high-precision laboratory measurements to the processing of modern satellite data, there is a plethora of applications in which the ability to compose the attractive effect of a specific distribution is a flexible and effective tool of analysis and interpretation.

Analytical, numerical, and hybrid techniques combine a rich palette of methodologies that implement the above and adapt to the available geometric and dynamic terrestrial data, most of which are provided in the form of global digital databases.

After an introduction, which provides the analytical definitions of mathematical operators and basic theorems of vector calculus, the book reviews the most representative applications and results from the classical modeling of the gravitational effect of ideal geometric bodies to the most recent numerical and hybrid methods.