Av Week: What Is Wrong With This News Item?

Oh, and stop being elitist as well.

Brian

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"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...

"JotaCé" wrote in .
Well, it depends on what you consider an orbit...

No, it depends on whether Brian has a clue about the basic physics, or
not.

and as the other (correct) branch of this thread shows, THIS branch is a
wild space goose chase.

I didn't intend to bother anybody. I was only trying to illustrate the
reason for the weightlessness both in the upwards and downwards part of
the parabola, by indicating that it is in fact as in an orbit. Of
course is not an orbit, I agree, and I think that was clear in my post.

What do you mean with elitist? Am I elitist? What a surprise! Please,
tell me why... Well, better don't tell me anything, I don't want more
absurd discussions.

Regards

On Wed, 10 May 2006 16:55:50 +0000, Jim Oberg wrote:

"Chuck Stewart" erred thusly...
The same data is in the press release...

By no means -- the words I read say:
"... and reached an apogee of 702 km which enabled 12 minutes
of microgravity."

Which I utterly misread while trying to be a
smartass while half asleep. My bad

--
Chuck Stewart
"Anime-style catgirls: Threat? Menace? Or just studying algebra?"

In article ,
Rand Simberg wrote:

Jim Oberg wrote:
Av Week: What Is Wrong With This News Item?


Arctic Action (In Orbit, by Frank morring, Jr.), May 8, 2006, p. 13

"...On May 2, a big Maxus 7 rocket exposed a package of five
European Space Agency experiments to microgravity for
12 min. as it fell from an apogee of 702 km. (436 mi.)."

I'm not referring to the news of the story, but the basic physics.

It's a common misconception that one is only weightless during descent
on a parabola, when in fact the weightlessness begins at engine cutoff,
on the way up.

A quick 0.5*a*t^2 (neglecting the non-uniform gravitational field) says
that in 6 minutes you fall 635 km, while in 12 min you fall 2540 km.

So the time quoted obviously includes falling up as well as falling
down, even if the reporter didn't understand it (do they ever?).

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Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------