4 ms·
> This orbital velocity at the surface of the earth is some 40,320 km/sec. Huh? Is this right? That's really fast, like 24,800 miles per second, which is a s
by metadat 2y ago
> This orbital velocity at the surface of the earth is some 40,320 km/sec.
Huh? Is this right? That's really fast, like 24,800 miles per second, which is a significant fraction of c (the speed of light, 186,000 miles/sec). >10% of c, is this a typo?
- fulafel 2y agoThey probably meant km/h - that's in the right ballpark for the oft cited 7.5 km/sec for LEO.
- nonameiguess 2y agoEarth's orbit has a circumference of about 940 million km. Divide that by 365.25 days x 24 hrs/day x 3600 seconds/hr and I'm getting in the arena of 29.78 km/sec.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- echoangle 2y agoThat’s the velocity of the earth around the sun. But “orbital velocity at the surface of the earth” is supposed to be the velocity a satellite in an orbit at ground level around the earth would have.
- markbnj 2y agoNo, it's not. This immediately caught my eye too. According to google the right number is 7.8 k/s so it was very far off the mark.
- bagels 2y ago7.8 km/s is typical in LEO. Much above 11 is no longer in earth orbit.