Day 5

How high is The Earth's Atmosphere?

What would the initial speed have to be to fire a human from a cannon to exit the Earth's Atmosphere?

If fired from a cannon a projectile must have enough speed to break through a planet's Atmosphere but ontop of that it must have enough energy to fight its gravitational force that is pulling the object back down towards it. The speed needed to leave a planet is known as the escape volocity but can also be thought of as the escape speed. If you were to fire something from a cannon into space it would have to reach the excape volocity To see how fast you need to travel to escape Earth check the chart of escape speeds.