[sci.military] Definition of 'Ballistic' in relation to SCUD

maton@herald.usask.ca (Terry Maton) (01/23/91)

From: maton@herald.usask.ca (Terry Maton)

Please could someone post, or email to me the definition of 'ballistic'.

I am interested in terms of the SCUD.

Does it leave earth atmosphere?

Thanks!

Terry
-- 
Terry Maton, U of Saskatchewan  | 
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parmentier@iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu (01/24/91)

From: parmentier@iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu
In article <1991Jan23.042117.6385@cbnews.att.com>, maton@herald.usask.ca (Terry Maton) writes:
> 
> 
> From: maton@herald.usask.ca (Terry Maton)
> 
> Please could someone post, or email to me the definition of 'ballistic'.
> 
	'Ballisitic' means that the path of the missile is not guided during
flight.  There aren't any control vanes to change it's direction.  The word
goes with the medieval ballista and ballistic flight is the flight of any-
thing which is fired and not controlable afterwords, such as arrows, bullets,
rocks, etc.  I believe that in reference to missiles, 'ballistic' is the
opposite of 'guided'.

-- 
___ Gregg Parmentier ____ parmentier@iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu ___

       If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.

etlgecs@juno25.ericsson.se (Grahame Curtis TM/JD rum5844) (01/27/91)

From: etlgecs@juno25.ericsson.se (Grahame Curtis TM/JD rum5844)
In article <1991Jan23.042117.6385@cbnews.att.com> maton@herald.usask.ca (Terry Maton) writes:
>From: maton@herald.usask.ca (Terry Maton)
>Please could someone post, or email to me the definition of 'ballistic'.

As far as I understood it, ballistic referred to the flight of the missile,
i.e. instead of

            --------
                   | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>]]]]]]]
            --------
            Launcher       Flight path           Missile

travelling in a straight line, it followed a "ballistic" flight path:


                                 ^
                               /   \
                              /     \
                             /       \
                    Launcher#         * Missile
(Apologies for the diagrams - hope they are understandable)

 
>I am interested in terms of the SCUD.
>
>Does it leave earth atmosphere?

Again, as far as I know, the Scud is not an ICBM so it does not need to
travel so far in the vertical plane. I don't think that it goes that high.
Can someone correct me if I'm wrong in either of the two cases.


Grahame Curtis
          SUPPORT THE COALITION .... SUPPORT OUR FORCES

jmc@DEC-Lite.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy) (02/04/91)

From: jmc@DEC-Lite.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)

If the laws of motion in vacuum apply to the SCUD, its maximum
altitude would be a quarter of its range.  In so far as lift is
used, the maximum altitude would be less.  My guess is that
it needs to avoid air resistance and therefore gets high enough
to that the vacuum equations apply.