Practical Explanation
No rocket can be constructed perfectly. Inevitably, the engine's direction of thrust will not be perfectly aligned with the rocket's center of mass, so the rocket will have an inbuilt tendency to turn. When this happens, the engine starts rotating with the rest of the rocket (regardless of its shape) and the direction of thrust rotates as well. Except for air resistance, there is no rotational force or torque available to turn a simple aerodynamic rocket back onto its correct path, as can be shown from the classical Newtonian physics reasoning in the next section. Consequently, the initial deviation from a vertical path will increase over time, and a rocket constructed in this way will always turn around and strike the ground eventually.
Read more about this topic: Pendulum Rocket Fallacy
Famous quotes containing the words practical and/or explanation:
“The city is always recruited from the country. The men in cities who are the centres of energy, the driving-wheels of trade, politics or practical arts, and the women of beauty and genius, are the children or grandchildren of farmers, and are spending the energies which their fathers’ hardy, silent life accumulated in frosty furrows in poverty, necessity and darkness.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement in decision-making. . . . Involving the adolescent in decisions doesn’t mean that you are giving up your authority. It means acknowledging that the teenager is growing up and has the right to participate in decisions that affect his or her life.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)