https://stacky.net/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=174.116.253.167 2026-09-10T15:10:00Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.40.1 https://stacky.net/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:A_bug_in_my_high_school_physics_intuition&diff=1341 2014-09-23T23:09:53Z

<p>174.116.253.167: Created page with &quot;Rocket ships are weirder than bicycles most of the energy you expend in accellerating isn&#039;t your kinetic energy, but the kinetic energy of your propellant: $E = p^2 / 2m$, $p^...&quot;</p> <hr /> <div>Rocket ships are weirder than bicycles most of the energy you expend in accellerating isn't your kinetic energy, but the kinetic energy of your propellant: $E = p^2 / 2m$, $p^2$ is the same for the rocket and the propellant, but pointing oppositely, and for small thrust the propellant mass is much smaller. (For things like orbital inserters, this isn't true anymore; one needs Tsiolkovski's rocket equation; [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/38/]] e.g.). On a bicyle, your &quot;propellant&quot; is actually the earth, which means most of the energy expense *is* your own kinetic energy (because the earth is much heavier than you)<br /> <br /> Hope that was amusing, <br /> jesse [[Special:Contributions/174.116.253.167|174.116.253.167]] 16:09, 23 September 2014 (PDT)</div>

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