Image:OrbitingCannonBalls.png

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image
File history
File links

No higher resolution available.

OrbitingCannonBalls.png‎ (409 × 396 pixel, file size: 40 KB, MIME type: image/png)

This image was uploaded in the PNG, GIF, or JPEG format. However, it contains information that could be stored more efficiently and/or more accurately in the SVG format. If possible, please upload an SVG version of this image. After doing so, please replace all instances of the previous version throughout Wikipedia (noted under the "File links" header), tag the old version with {{Vector version available|NewImage.svg}}, and remove this tag. For more information, see Wikipedia:Preparing images for upload. For assistance with converting to SVG, please see the Graphics Lab.

Illustration of Orbits using Cannonballs

I created this drawing myself - FrankH 06:31, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Key

If the cannon fires its ball with a low initial velocity, the trajectory of the ball will curve downwards and hit the ground (A). As the firing velocity is increased, the cannonball will hit the ground further (B) and further (C) away from the cannon, because while the ball is still falling towards the ground, the ground is curving away from it. If the cannonball is fired with sufficient velocity, the ground will curve away from the ball at the same rate as the ball falls — it is now in orbit (D). The orbit may be circular like (D) or if the firing velocity is increased even more, the orbit may become more (E) and more (F) elliptical. At a certain even faster velocity (called the escape velocity) the motion changes from an elliptical orbit to a parabola, and will go off indefinitely and never return. At faster velocities, the orbit shape will become a hyperbola.

I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.
In case this is not legally possible,
I grant any entity the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

A vector version of this image is also available, and should be used in place of this raster image whenever possible.
For more information about vector graphics, see the articles on vector and raster graphics. There is also information about MediaWiki's support of SVG images.

File history

Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version.
Click on date to download the file or see the image uploaded on that date.