Velocity quantity, momentum, is a vector and defined by In special relativity, the dimensionless Lorentz factor appears frequently, and is given by where γ is the Lorentz factor and "c" is the speed of light. Escape velocity is the minimum speed a ballistic object needs to escape from a massive body such as Earth. It represents the kinetic energy that, when added to the object's gravitational potential energy, (which is always negative) is equal to zero. The general formula for the escape velocity of an object at a distance "r" from the center of a planet with mass "M" is where
Mass ratio from Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation: where This equation can be rewritten in the following equivalent form: The fraction on the left-hand side of this equation is the rocket's mass ratio by definition. This equation indicates that a Δv of formula_4 times the exhaust velocity requires a mass ratio of formula_5. For instance, for a vehicle to achieve a formula_6 of 2.5 times its exhaust velocity would require a mass ratio of formula_7 (approximately 12.2). One could say that a "velocity ratio" of formula_4 requires a mass ratio of formula_5. Sutton defines the mass ratio inversely as: In this case, the values