The Neo-Babylonian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 626 BC and ended in 539 BC. During the preceding three centuries, Babylonia had been ruled by their fellow Akkadian speakers and northern neighbours, Assyria.
In order for a satellite to successfully orbit the Earth, it must travel a horizontal distance of 8000 meters before falling a vertical distance of 5 meters. A horizontally launched projectile falls a vertical distance of 5 meters in its first second of motion.
Back to our lunch discussion: How fast, we wondered over our kebabs, would a geostationary satellite have to be moving to stay stationary in the sky? The space shuttle orbiter, we know, orbits at around 8,000 meters per second (18,000 miles per hour) but it does a complete orbit in about 90 minutes. Would a geostationary satellite be going faster or slower? To find out, I did a little math.