I was watching a falcon heavy launch on YouTube. In the corner of the screen it shows speed and altitude of the rocket, I noticed that once the boosters disconnected they continued to gain altitude before finally coming back down to earth. Iscit the momentum that carries them further?
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It *is* the momentum that carries them further.
They’re moving up at thousands of mph. Even after they disconnect, they need to lose all that vertical speed before they start falling again.
The same reason your car keeps moving forward when you let off the gas. Yes, momentum. The boosters need to gradually lose their upward velocity before falling back down.
Momentum, and boosters usually need to burn whatever fuel is still in them before they stop generating thrust.
Yes. It’s like when you throw a ball up into the air. Once it leaves your hand, it loses all the propellant your arm gave it and still gains altitude.
You can learn just about everything about basic rocket physics from throwing a ball straight up into the air.
Your arm pushes the ball until it lets go, then the ball flies for a while, in the direction you threw it, but also slowing down, because, you know, gravity, then eventually hits the ground. It doesn’t stop moving after you let it go.
The same is true for rockets. Rockets are like super long arms that continue throwing *themselves* until they run out of fuel. When the rocket runs out of fuel, it has finally let go of the ball, then it does the same thing the ball does.
(If the five year old in question can grasp this, you can talk about lift and how planes are kinda like frisbees)
Eli5: throw a baseball upwards. After it leaves your hand, it’s no longer receiving power. But it will sure fly a way up won’t it?
Momentum, of course!
They are fucking off away from the ground to launch vehicles into space. That’s a lot of momentum upward. And they are gaining velocity still while they are firing. So when the boosters shut off and disconnect, they still have a ton of momentum overcoming gravity. It takes a while for gravity to slow the boosters, stall them, and then start to pull them back down to Earth.
Just like this. Take a ball, throw it upward with your arm. Sure, the ball “disconnects” and has no more “thrust production” once you let it leave your hand, but it still goes up up up for a while, until gravity overcomes it and brings it back down.
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