Re: [Phys-L] escape speed

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 8/1/24 6:20 PM, Anthony Lapinski via Phys-l wrote:

> What about escape speed? Is it mostly important for space travel? But
> isn't gravity the main factor here?

As I see it, gravity is the whole story here.
Convert the escape speed to a kinetic energy per unit mass,
and it's the depth of the gravitational potential well.

=============

To answer a question that wasn't asked:

You can related the orbital speed to the escape speed via
the virial theorem ... but that's probably more than the
HS students need to know.