Sunday, April 8, 2012

principles of rocket propulsion


    Rocket and its working principles

Newton`s law

When I was a child, it was always a big question for me that how these rockets lift off, I was very amazed when I saw them on the screens. I have thought that there would be extraordinary principles involved in them and only few can understand. Yes they are amazing, not only in childhood days but even in the present days and things about rockets always kept me interested towards them but the laws involved in them are really simple and most useful.

   If we look at them, It`s the Newton`s third law of motion, which they use them for rocket lift off.  The law says that

 For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

             Which means that if we apply some force on a body, then that body will apply an equal force on us but in opposite direction. Actually this law was derived from momentum conservation principle. The momentum of the system remains same until an external force is applied on it. If we are ok with this then how we are going to use this principle in lifting a rocket, what`s the big link in newton`s third law and rocket lift off.
                 If we ask a boy to sketch a rocket on a paper, he generally draws a rough outline of rocket and he never forgot to keep something (sort of fire) coming out from lower end of it, though he doesn`t know why that fire is coming out. It is that fire which is solely responsible for the rocket lift off.

                A rocket, when releases a lot of mass in any form meant that, it is applying some force on that mass to come out, and from newton`s law, that mass also applies the same force on the rocket in the opposite direction and if that force can dominate the earth`s gravitational pull, then we are succeeded, our rocket lifts off from the earth.
     I said am amazed, not only in the childhood days but also in the present days with the case of rockets where the force produced by small particles of gases can dominate the force produced by the gravitational pull of the heavenly body EARTH…

No comments:

Post a Comment