How satellites go into orbit

this is how we were taught satellites work in one of my first physics courses

basically imagine shooting a canonball farther and farther until at some point it doesn't hit land but basically keeps missing Earth

so it's basically in constant freefall

if that were true, shouldn't its velocity be constantly increasing?

esp with almost no friction since it's outside of the atmosphere

just occurred to me the other day....

No because the center of gravity is changing.

It's velocity DOES constantly increase. But it's relative speed remains the same because it's constantly changing velocity is always at right angles to the center of mass it's orbiting.

It’s velocity does not constantly increase, I’m confused on what you’re trying to say, drewski

An orbiting object has a constantly changing velocity.

Because it's constantly changing directions

partially correct
the (angular) speed stays the same, but the direction changes

velocity is a vector, speed is a scalar

speed stays the same

velocity changes

Yes but velocity doesn’t increase, it just changes

V is speed in a direction. V can change without speed changing.

thats what i said

partially correct
the (angular) velocity stays the same, but the direction changes
To: partially correct
the (angular) speed stays the same, but the direction changes

@marten.aap2.0 is what you originally said

Ok but I was talking to drewski

I might have worded my original statement poorly. The velocity is constantly *changing* not constantly increasing. It can continue to accelerate while maintaining the same speed .

you cant correct someone then change what you said after being corrected

Sorry about that

But I wasn’t wrong, Chad?

marten

I’m so confused

Oh okay

Now I understand, the gear dude

Sorry, I’m slow sometimes

marten tried to correct someone but made a mistake, then went and changed wht he said

I'm still not sure why the magnitude of the velocity would not constantly increase. if i use the cannonball thought experiment.

mistakes are no problem but when changing what yo said after being replied to is no ok

assume no atmosphere, the cannonballs velocity (magnitude) would constantly increase until it hits the ground

need to think about it more

But where is the ground?

it essentially keeps missing it

That is the caveat

but it's velocity is still increasing

so it should not stop