Re: Orbital Mechanics revisited

Lynndel Humphreys wrote:
If the shuttle were to go straight up (90 degrees) at >



If the rocket thrust were directly upward as seen by a person on the ground, and the launch were from any point other than the North or South Pole, there would be a Coriolis acceleration from the viewpoint of the ground observer.

For the rocket to remain directly above the observer who is rotating with the earth, it must move eastward faster and faster as it get further and further from the rotation axis of the earth in order to stay directly overhead. That increase in speed would require a force pointing east, which isn't available if the rocket is thrusting straight up. So the rocket drifts westward relative to a point at its altitude directly above the observer.

Alternatively, from the wikipedia article or any mechanics book,
omega X v is not zero. Omega points from the south pole to the north, and the best way to see that omega and v are are not perpendicular is to get a globe and put a pencil perpendicular to the surface at, say, Kennedy Space Center on the map.

--
Maurice Barnhill
mvb@xxxxxxxx [Use ReplyTo, not From]
[bellatlantic.net is reserved for spam only]
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
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