When you throw an object away in space, why do you accelerate as well instead of just transferring all energy to the movement of the object?
In: Physics
Because when you push the object, the object is pushing you. From *your* standpoint, you’re sitting in space and the object is pushing you, so you move away. That takes some of the energy, so it can’t all go to the object.
When you jump, you’re pushing off the earth. You get pushed up, the earth gets pushed down. You move a lot, because you’re light (relative to earth). The earth moves an incredibly tiny amount (but it’s not zero) in the opposite direction so that momentum balances. The mass imbalance is so huge that virtually all the energy goes to you, not the earth, so much so that we almost always ignore the earth side in an energy balance, but it can still never be 100% in only one of the two objects because they’re *both* getting pushed and momentum has to be conserved.
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