http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/rockets-most-quickly-accelerate-horizontally Just another bbPress community en-US Tue, 21 May 2013 15:12:03 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/search.php http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/rockets-most-quickly-accelerate-horizontally#post-292741 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:27:21 +0000 walice0127 292741@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <p>Quite funny and inserting ,thanks for sharing.<br /> <a href="http://www.playkiller.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.playkiller.com/</a><br /> <a href="http://www.playkiller.com/">runescape gold</a> </p> http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/rockets-most-quickly-accelerate-horizontally#post-289593 Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:49:14 +0000 Rad Jackson 289593@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <p>Well, I had seen a programme from series F tonight. Evidently rockets accelerate most quickly horizontally? I&#39;m afraid I&#39;m going to have to nitpick on this one.</p> <p>As far as I am aware, and this is something of a technicality, rockets actually most quickly accelerate at an angle of 45 degrees from the earth.</p> <p>If I worked at QinetiQ I could probably provide for you some kind of equation it would take longer to clear than a fraudulent check and thus confound long enough for you to submit to my attestation.</p> <p>Since I cannot, I will fumble through an explanation.</p> <p>It seems to me that a rocket accelerating directly away from the centre of the earth, turning horizontally to acquire great velocity, would actually be accelerating at a 45 degree angle as it would be accelerating more quickly than the curvature of the earth would allow for it to be truly horizontal; seeing as for it to be traveling along the horizon it would then give in to being top heavy and crash.</p> <p>I believe the vector or ratio at which the rocket would have to maintain at its lift off velocity would average out at 45 degrees... and if you want me to explain why that is, you&#39;ll need a glass of brandy and a fine cigar, as we&#39;d probably be here long enough for you to finish the cigar -- which I am sure would be my own folly.</p> <p>Could you please amend this logical incongruity and issue me MAD PROPS as I am a Canadian living in Britain and haven&#39;t had MAD PROPS since leaving Canada. (I&#39;m sure there&#39;s a quip in there, somewhere.)</p> <p>I thank you. &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_mrgreen.gif&quot; title=&quot;:mrgreen:&quot; class=&quot;bb_smilies&quot; /&gt; </p>