Rockets and Artificial Satellites

Principle and working of rockets

You must have seen the firework rockets in the sky. Also you must have seen the launching of rockets for the space programmes in the movies or documentaries. Have you ever thought is there any resemblance between the two? Yes of course, as both of them work on the same principle i.e. the conservation of momentum, you can say the firework rocket as the demo model of space programme rocket.

Principle of rockets

The basic principle of the working of rocket is the conservation of momentum. The principle of conservation of momentum states that the total momentum of the system remains conserved if the external force acting on the system is zero. This principle can be elaborated by the following example:

Let us take the bullet-gun system. Before the firing of the gun, the velocity of the bullet and the gun is zero. Thus the momentum of the system is zero. Now when the bullet of mass ‘m’ is fired with velocity v from the gun of mass M, the bullet leaves the muzzle with the momentum ‘mv’ and the gun moves backward (recoil) with a momentum MV. From the principle o…