How does a rocket fly? - question from Maria Velaho
If you've ever shot a gun, or more specifically a shotgun, and felt the recoil, you understand how a rocket works.
Newton's 3rd law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. By firing a
shotgun forward, you are thrown back slightly. Similarly, a rocket literally "throws stuff" out the back (or
downward if you want to think of it that way). This action in turn creates a force that "throws" the rocket
forward or upward. As you might imagine, the rocket has to throw a lot of "stuff" very fast in order to get the
liftoff it requires. For a slightly more detailed look at the mathematics of how a rocket develops thrust, see the
Nozzles section of the
Aerospaceweb.org site about the
Aerospike Engine.
- answer by Aaron Brown, 17 June 2001
