For example, if I took a butane lighter & fired it up, there’s no force in any direction. How does a rocket ignition work & propel itself upwards?
Thanks,
In: Engineering
Think of the size difference. That butane lighter is indeed exerting force, just not very much.
Meanwhile those rocket engines are probably the equivalent to a few million butane lighters all going off a once, there’s definitely going to create a force, and rocket fuel is a *tad* more energy dense than something like butane.
Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. The easiest ELI5 is to think of it like pushing against a wall. Stand in front of a wall and using one hand, push the wall. The wall doesn’t move, but you get pushed backwards, even though you were exerting force forwards. Opposite reaction, the wall just doesn’t move due to it being strong.
In the simplest explanation, the rocket does the same thing. It’s pushing *hard* downwards, but that also means it’s getting oppositely pushed upwards.
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