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Re: Rocket action



On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Greg Kifer wrote:

I remember, but don't know from where, hearing that a rocket can go no
faster forward than the exhaust gases leave the exhaust nozzle. Is this
correct? If so, can someone explain the whys and wherefores to a simple
high school teacher like me. Thanks in advance.

On the contrary, it's easy to make a rocket "go faster" than its exhaust.
All *you* have to do is outrace its exhaust in the other direction.

Notice that, by Newton's first law, it takes absolutely no effort for you
to continue to do this and, if the rocket continues to produce *any*
thrust whatsoever, it will go *even* faster!

John Mallinckrodt mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm