4 ms·
It you are in a room, and you jump, does the wall suddenly slam into you at 1,000 mph? Why or why not?
by cubic_earth 3y ago
It you are in a room, and you jump, does the wall suddenly slam into you at 1,000 mph? Why or why not?
- kevviiinn 3y agoBecause I already have momentum from the earth, but a rocket will be disconnected from the earth for far longer than I would be jumping. The path of a rocket would start to curve away from the launch site due to no longer being connected from the earth for such a long time.
- cubic_earth 3y ago1) An object will maintain its momentum forever unless some force acts upon it. 2) In the case of the rocket, it accelerates eastward. Even if parts fall off, and they slow down because of the drag of the atmosphere, and they slow down all the way to the speed of the atmosphere, the atmosphere is more or less moving eastward at the same speed as the earth's rotation, so any part would be unlikely to land any further west than where it detached from the rocket. And if there was no atmosphere on earth any part that fell off a rocket during its ascent to orbit would fall according to a ballistic trajectory and would most certainly land farther east than where it fell.
- kevviiinn 3y agoSo there's no friction from the atmosphere?
- the_mungler 3y ago"friction from the atmosphere" = drag. The previous commenter explains the effect friction has.
- joko42 3y agoThat's Aristotle physics.
- kevviiinn 3y agoFriction doesn't exist I guess. Spherical cow and all that?