Variable-mass system the momentum of the system varies for Therefore, by Newton's second law Noting that u - v is the velocity of d"m" relative to "m", symbolized as v, this final equation can be arranged as In a system where mass is being ejected or ablated from a main body, the derivation is slightly different. At time "t", let a mass "m" travel at a velocity v, meaning the initial momentum of the system is Since the main body will be losing mass, d"m" will be negative, meaning that at a time "t" + d"t" the momentum of the system becomes
Escape velocity kg or 1,000 kg; what differs is the amount of energy required. For an object of mass formula_9 the energy required to escape the Earth's gravitational field is "GMm / r", a function of the object's mass (where "r" is the radius of the Earth, "G" is the gravitational constant, and "M" is the mass of the Earth, ). A related quantity is the specific orbital energy which is essentially the sum of the kinetic and potential energy divided by the mass. An object has reached escape velocity when the specific orbital energy is greater or equal to zero. An