Types of Rocket and Jet Propulsion

Essay by cdurre1College, UndergraduateA+, May 2004

download word file, 6 pages 5.0

Jet and rocket propulsion use basic laws to unitize the power that complex propulsion systems produce. Jet and rocket engines use Sir Isaac Newton's concepts with both basic and complex systems of propulsion. Rockets can be basic with little to no moving parts, and they can also be very intricate with hundreds of miniature systems all working together. Some of the different fuel rockets are solid, liquid, nuclear, and ion. Because of the extreme complicity of nuclear and ion rockets, they will not be discussed in this paper. Two of the first jet propulsion engines are ram and turbo. Jet propulsion uses the air we breathe as one of main component in combustion. Newton's third law of motion explains how simple propulsion can be.

Propulsion uses Newton's third law which states for every action there is a reaction equal in force and opposite in direction. Using Newton's third law and a common house hold balloon rocket and jet propulsion can be explained.

If a balloon is filled with air and tied shut so that no air could escape it will do nothing but lie still. The reason the balloon does not move is because the pressure inside the balloon is exerted equally in all directions and equilibrium is established inside the balloon. If another balloon is filled with air then released it will fly around until all of the air is out of the balloon. The pressure of the inside air against the front of the balloon becomes greater than the pressure against the mouth of the balloon. This opposing pressure pushes the balloon in the direction of the strongest pressure, which is opposite to the direction of the escaping air. This is the law of motion makes jet and rocket propulsion work.

Using Newton's third law of motion...