missingblade, with pleasure
Converting Energy
(A tribute to
Bob Hoover)
Kinetic energy is
where m is the object’s mass and v is its velocity. For simplicity SI or SI-
derived units (m, kg, s) are preferred.
Potential energy in earth gravity (assumed homogeneous for small heights)
is
where m is the object’s mass, h its altitude above an arbitrary reference,
and g is standard earth gravitational acceleration (9.81m/s/s).
To find out to which elevation a certain kinetic energy can propel an
object, we set the two energies equal, and do simple transformations:
So for v = 30knots ≈ 15.43m/s and g = 9.81m/s/s we get:
This is so basic, it's probably the entrance examination to be allowed to attend Physics 101
