Rocket Propulsion

• Classical kinematics is hugely governed by the three laws of motion given by Sir Isaac
Newton.
• The three laws of motion on which modern mechanics is dependent are as follows-
1. First Law- Every body continues to be in its state of rest or of uniform

motion in a straight line unless compelled by some external unbalanced force to act
otherwise.
2. Second law- The rate of change of momentum is directly proportional to

the applied force and it takes place in the direction in which force acts.
3. Third law- To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Experiments show that whenever two bodies interact, two forces that they exert
on each other are always equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. It is to be
noted here that the two forces act on two different bodies. Forces always occur in
pairs and they act at the same instant.
Such a pair is called an action-reaction pair. Any of the two forces may be called
the action, the other will be the reaction.
It is a wrong notion that the two forces add up and the net force is zero. However,
if we consider a system of the two bodies, their resultant (net force) gives a null
vector.
It is frequently applied in daily life phenomena. The recoiling of a gun, the rowing
of a boat, the rebound of a ball thrown at a wall, the propulsion of a rocket or jet etc
all obey the third law of motion.
INTRODUCTION: Before firing the rocket, the total momentum of the
system is zero because the rocket is in the state of rest. When it is fired, chemical fuels
inside the rocket are burnt and the hot gases are passed through nozzle with greater speed
According to the law of conservation of momentum, the total momentum after firing must
be equal to zero. As the hot gases gain momentum to the rear on leaving the rocket, the
rocket acquires equal momentum in the upward i.e. opposite direction.
*Rocket Propellants: It is the reaction mass of a rocket. This reaction

mass is ejected at the highest achievable velocity from a rocket engine to produce thrust.
If a rocket just flew straight up, then it would fall right back down to Earth when it ran
out of fuel! Rockets have to tilt to the side as they travel into the sky in order to reach
orbit or a circular path of motion around the Earth.
This steering technique is known as a gravity turn, which uses Earth's gravity to help
conserve rocket fuel and minimize stress and strain on the spacecraft. This works by
rotating the spacecraft until its heavier side is facing down to help curve its flight into
orbit.
•Thrust is a reaction force
described quantitatively by
Newton's third law.
•When a system expels or

accelerates mass in one
direction, the accelerated
mass will cause a force of
equal magnitude but opposite
direction on that system.
?
Escape velocity is the speed
that an object needs to be
travelling to break free of
planet or moon’s gravity well
and leave it without further
propulsion.
For example- A spacecraft
leaving the
surface of earth needs to be
going 7 miles per second or
nearly 25000 miles per hour
to leave without falling back
to the surface or falling into
the orbit.
A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket
engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer).
Since solid-fuel rockets can remain in storage for a long time without
much propellant degradation, and the fact that they almost always launch
reliably, they have been frequently used in military applications such
as missiles.
Solid rockets are used as light launch vehicles for low earth orbit (LEO)
payloads under 2 tons or escape payloads up to 500 kilograms
(1,100 lb).
LIQUID PROPELLANT:
A liquid-propellant rocket is one that has an engine running on liquid
fuel/oxidizer. The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid
propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical
(a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants.
Physics Textbook XI Part-1 - NCERT
New simplified Physics – S.L. Arora
Concepts of Physics – H.C. Verma
Unacademy.com
Topperlearning.com
Youtube.com

Rocket Propulsion

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Rocket Propulsion

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Rocket Propulsion

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

• Classical kinematics is hugely governed by the three laws of motion given by Sir Isaac

1. First Law- Every body continues to be in its state of rest or of uniform

2. Second law- The rate of change of momentum is directly proportional to

3. Third law- To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

*Rocket Propellants: It is the reaction mass of a rocket. This reaction

•When a system expels or

New simplified Physics – S.L. Arora

Concepts of Physics – H.C. Verma

You might also like