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Escape Velocity Again

To escape Earth's gravitational pull, an object must be thrown at a specific velocity known as the escape velocity. The escape velocity is calculated by equating the kinetic energy gained from reaching that velocity to the amount of work required to overcome Earth's gravitational force entirely. For Earth, this escape velocity is about 11.2 kilometers per second. Reaching this threshold velocity allows an object to continually gain distance from Earth instead of slowing down and eventually falling back to the surface under gravity.

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sameer chahar
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37 views4 pages

Escape Velocity Again

To escape Earth's gravitational pull, an object must be thrown at a specific velocity known as the escape velocity. The escape velocity is calculated by equating the kinetic energy gained from reaching that velocity to the amount of work required to overcome Earth's gravitational force entirely. For Earth, this escape velocity is about 11.2 kilometers per second. Reaching this threshold velocity allows an object to continually gain distance from Earth instead of slowing down and eventually falling back to the surface under gravity.

Uploaded by

sameer chahar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to throw so that it doesn’t return?

Ahmed Saad Sabit


May 29, 2020

I heard that there is a specific velocity in which if I throw an


object directly into the sky, then the object won’t return. It
will keep going forever.
But isn’t the Gravitational Force active at all distances upto
infinity, so why doesn’t the object slow down to zero and fall
back?

Earth is a sphere that has mass in it. By Newton’s Gravitational Theory, every
mass should attract an other mass. The force is given by a simple equation. An
object has a mass, so as the Earth. So Object and Earth attract each other.
But is it possible to throw the object so fast that it never falls back and keeps
going and going?
The thing that haunts me trying to think that case is Gravitational Force is
literally present at all distance. Though it’s magnitude or strength falls down
with distance, but still, the force exists. Very generally we can just say that,
because of deceleration a, for a u initial velocity,

F = ma v = u − at (1)

So after a large time later, at = u and then v = 0, the object comes to a rest.
So, what wrong here?
What we ignored in this problem is that the deaccelaration changes with
increase of distance. Because the Force starts to decrease with the increase of
Distance. The raw analysis should be made.
Let us try to answer this question at first. What is the energy needed to
give to take away an object at a far distance r from Earth?
As we know that, W = F x, there is a Gravitational Force and that is a
function of distance. We can use the idea of an integration to find the amount
of Work done to take the object from R to r, where R is Radius of Earth and
r is a far distance from the center of the Earth.
By Newton’s Law,
Mm
F =G 2 (2)
x

1
Where M is Earth mass and m is the object mass, x is the distance.
From calculus point of view, for a small displacement dx, the Force stays
almost constant. So, we do a small amount of Work dW .

dW = F dx (3)
∫ ∫ r
Mm
dW = G 2 dx (4)
x
R
( )
1 1
∆W = −GM m − (5)
r R

So, to take this (thing into


) far outer space at a distance r, we have to give an
Energy of −GM m 1r − R1 . What if r is so so so large that it is nearly infinite
respect to R? Well, then,
1
→0 if r >> R
r
1
Then r is almost zero. Then we have the equation above,

Mm
W =G (if distance is large) (6)
R
Now let us try to decode what the math says.
If we take an object slowly slowly, so that it doesn’t gather too much kinetic
energy, then when we go really far, the amount of work that we have to input
to do the job is about GM m/R. It seems that it doesn’t depend on the large
distance r. Why not?
Because at too much high distance, force becomes so weak that you don’t
even feel it. There are so many stars that are 100000000 times heavier than
Earth itself, but do you ever feel bothered by their force? Nope. As they are
so so far away. Hold a ball above ground and stay still, do you feel that the
currently known heaviest star in the Universe is attracting it and moving it
away? It’s just not possible.
Same happens when you are far from Earth, there’s essentially no Force
present, so there’s literally no a for v = u − at to deaccelerate and you can keep
going.
Okay, so, how do I know that velocity to make this happen?
Total amount of Work to put an object far away from Earth is GM m/R. So,
we need to give this amount of Energy. And from Work Energy theorem, which
tells that Amount of Work done is Change in Energy, putting total energy of
GM m/R shall put the object in the way we want.
If that specific velocity is given, a kinetic energy will be gained. This kinetic
energy if equal or greater than GM m/R, then the object shall totally leave
Earth and never deacclerate and Fall down.

2
But how to find kinetic energy?
Newton’s Second Law says that,

F = ma

So, describing it mathematically in terms of velocity v,

dv
F =m (7)
dt
(8)

In the Work equation, ∫


dv
W = m dx
dt
You can see that,
∫
dv
W = dxm
dt
∫
dx
W = m dv
dt
∫
W = mv dv
1
W = mv 2
2
So, at objects v velocity, it has kinetic energy Ek = 12 mv 2 . What if this is the
same amount as GM m/R?
This will input enough energy to throw object away from Earth once and
for all. It is possible now to show that,
1 Mm
mv 2 =G
2 R
2 2GM
v =
√ r
2GM
v=
r
√
If you have ability to give a velocity v = 2GM R , then we have that object
away.
Most weird is that the velocity doesn’t have the term m in the equation. This
is absurd, whatever mass it is, 1 kg or 100000 kg, if we can give that specific
velocity, we have that object permanently away. G, M, R are all constants and

3
we know their values. This gives,

G =6.67 × 10−11 N m2 kg −2 Gravitational Constant


M =5.97 × 10 24
kg Earth Mass
R =6.37 × 10 m 6
Earth Radius

So we finally get the special velocity,

v = 1.2 × 104 m/s (9)

This velocity is called the Escape Velocity and is extremely high.


There is also one thing to notice. If it happens that some other object
from a large distance away starts to move towards Earth and eventually hits
the surface of Earth, then it shall also have the same velocity while falling as
Escape velocity.
You can just imagine reverse case and find out why that can happen.

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