3 ms·
The planet's curvature is not very relevant to the article, but, yes, if an object is in a free fall at a slow speed (I mean non-orbital) its trajectory is: -
by kubanczyk 6y ago
The planet's curvature is not very relevant to the article, but, yes, if an object is in a free fall at a slow speed (I mean non-orbital) its trajectory is:
- parabola if you assume flat&infinite ground,
- ellipsis if you assume a spherical planet (an ellipsis is crossing the planet's surface).
This is Newton, not GR.
- dreamcompiler 6y agoYep. Orbits are always conic sections. Which sometimes inconveniently intersect with the surface of the thing being orbited.
- dreamcompiler 6y agoMore precisely, 2-body orbits are always conic sections. Once you add more bodies, orbits usually become chaotic.
- skykooler 6y agoOf course, a very very eccentric ellipse approximates a parabola quite well. You only start to notice errors when dealing with trajectories dozens of miles long (on Earth).