So I just learned what Terminal Velocity is, that gravity pushes down as much as the air molecules are pushing up, meaning that it reaches as fast as it can when it reaches that point (terminal velocity) and will not go any faster.
With no air in space to stop the “pushing up” can things increasingly build up speed with not cap point?
I tried googling and it says this “The only terminal velocity in space is the speed of light. For anything moving more slowly than the speed of light the limiting factors are the specific impulse (the force applied multiplied by the time it acts) and the mass of the object, which together determine the acceleration and the time that acceleration acts.”
But I don’t really understand that, I don’t understand “specific impulse (the price applied multiplied by the time it acts)” what does “acts” mean?
Also I understand there is also no gravity in space, but I know that planets can exert gravity without actually pulling the object into its atmosphere…..
Can someone explain this to me in layman’s terms??
In: Physics
Terminal velocity just means that there is a speed reached by an accelerating object at which the force accelerating the object is counteracted by some other force. In case of terminal velocity in atmosphere, you have the force from gravitational acceleration being matched by the force acting the opposite direction due to air resistance. In space, you can define a terminal velocity of an object if a force other than the one accelerating it acts on it; if there isn’t such a force, there’s “no terminal velocity” as defined in classical terms. But, there is a speed limit for the whole universe and that is the speed of light as you mentioned.
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