The Gravitational Slingshot

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The Gravitational Slingshot

The gravitational slingshot is a way that scientists have truly harnessed the gravitational pull of a planet by using it to launch satellites and other useful projectiles towards their desired locations. This method was developed through the use of Newton's Laws of Gravity and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. When these ideas of gravity and the shape of a planet's orbit were brought together piece by piece, this new theory changed how a projectile traveling through space could simply cross an orbital pattern, which would in turn change the path of the moving object. The change in the path accelerates the object at a higher rate and sends it speeding off in its proper direction. The gravitational slingshot doesn't guarantee perfect results every time, but it has shown to be an extremely helpful technique in the world of space travel, which when studied and tested can be further improved to ensure safe and accurate results every time.

Newton, while sitting out in a field one day, was hit on the head by an apple that fell from a tree. Most people would think nothing of this event, but Newton brought into perspective that some force had to draw that apple to ground once it was released from the branches of the tree. Through much observation and testing, Newton came up with a name for this force. He called it gravity. Newton created 3 laws to use as guidelines for gravity. Law 1 states that an object in motion stays in motion and that an object at rest stays at rest. The second Law states that force equals the product of mass and acceleration. The final Law simply states that for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. These theories originated from something as simp...

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...ay not always be proven true, it leads them on a better path to find answers to the questions they still have unsolved, which can be found by testing a new hypothesis based on gathered data from the previous experiments.

Works Cited

Anonymous. “The Gravitational Slinghshot.” Gravitation. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .

Mr. Bowie’s Physics Class. “The Science Classroom WIki.” The Science Classroom. Jody Bowie, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. .

Nave, Carl R. “Kepler’s Laws.” Hyper Physics. Carl R. Nave, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .

Odenwald, Stan. “Ask the Astronomer.” Astronomy Cafe. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .

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