this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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Drop a ball. It goes fastest just before and after it hits the ground, and slows down until it gets back to near the height you dropped it from
The probe is the ball, and slingshotting around the sun is like bouncing off the ground. The potential energy (height of ball/distance from sun) gets converted to and from kinetic energy (speed).
That's a pretty good answer. I was definitely overthinking it.
A little correction. They would be slingshotting around either Venus, Mercury, or both to lose energy.
Going around the sun is like just bouncing a perfectly elastic ball.
Close enough for this mental model, though.
Edit: in my own defense I am in Vegas doing minor Vegas things.
While I'd really rather be talking about orbital mechanics or some other geek shit, I do get to see an annular eclipse in totality in a beautiful national park. That's certainly a once in a lifetime event.
Seeing an annular eclipse is an excellent application of orbital mechanics! Enjoy!
I intend to. Provided I don't get trapped in the desert for days. We're bringing extra food, water, and eclipse glasses to auction to the highest bidder, though.
We didn't even plan this. The opportunity came up before I even knew that I could take a tour and see this.
Glad you are having fun. I never want to fly through Vegas again. That airport was outrageous, even by airport standards. Ended up paying $45 for a Shake Shack meal. Thankfully I had my rolling machine, tubes, and tobacco. They wanted $20 per pack of cigarettes, I forgot my lighter though, and paid $10 for a BiC lighter.
Oh. I hate it here. I'll never be back. My wife is here for work and convinced me to fly out for a long weekend.
It's awful. I don't party or gamble or smoke or really do much but outdoor and educational, and I particularly hate people trying to extract more money from me.
I'm fine with paying what it costs, even if that's a lot, but once I've paid, you don't talk to me about money again.
Plus everyone's smoking inside and smoking weed and driving and lower class than even Myrtle or Daytona Beach.
The airport was bad, then we realized that the Lyft driver ran up the meter on us by going the long, more trafficy way. I didn't even know that was possible.
Plus I now am away from home without a pair of glasses and with a case of pinkeye (bilateral, which I've never had before) that I must've picked up at the optometrist on Wednesday. Plus I can't seem to trick Google or this new kagi thing into telling me how common this is. It keeps telling me that optometrists can diagnose but not treat pinkeye in most jurisdictions. Of course it must be common.