3 ms·
Potential energy is not energy that you can give to a payload unless you want to have it fall 100km back to earth.
by lutefisk 11y ago
Potential energy is not energy that you can give to a payload unless you want to have it fall 100km back to earth.
- jzila 11y agoSure, but it's energy that a rocket needs to impart nevertheless.
- gfodor 11y agoThe point was that the measurement is what it can impart on a payload (presumably one going UP.) So your point doesn't seem relevant.
- jzila 11y agoI think the point was to illustrate the difference in energy requirements for the rocket to impart to the payload. That said, re-reading Elon's article, he did explicitly say _kinetic_ energy in the 120GJ figure, in which case 0 is the right number for New Shepard at 100km.