Why do rockets launch in an arc, and not just go straight up?
In: 4
If you went straight up, you’d come straight back down.* **
*minus stuff like the earth spinning, the wind blowing, and you not going exactly straight up.
**Also if you went straight up fast enough you’d fly so fast you’d take infinity years to come back down.
Rockets go up high to where the air is thin/a total non-issue, then they start going side ways really really fast.
This is how a satellite stays up, it’s going so fast side ways that when it goes back down, it keeps missing the earth.
This process of going sideways so fast you keep missing when falling is called an orbit.
Now they don’t want to go straight up and then start turning.
Usually they’ll start turning a little bit immediately, just in case the rocket breaks and falls down. That way it doesn’t crash into the expensive rocket launching stuff/people.
They try to balance whether it’s better to go sideways more because that’s what most of the energy is doing, or whether it’s better to go higher so the air is thinner.
Rockets are also very hard to turn around, it takes a long time so they try to spread it out.
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