Re: {mluni} (was Re: TEXT: le gunse ku joi le lorxu)

[Mark A Biggar <mab@WDL.LORAL.COM>]

>From: "Dylan P. Thurston" <DPT%HUMA1.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
> > What is ballistic flight? Is it movement in a centripetal force field?
> > I thought it was movement in a constant field, as gravity appears to be
> > near the surface of the Earth. At least that's the field bullets
> > experience. I doubt that we need a basic gismu for movement in a
> > centripetal field.
>The distinction I had in mind was that between self-powered motion
>(the fox walks around the oven) and that from an external force (as
>the force on a sattelite or ball).  "Ballistic" is doubtless not the
>right word.  (And the distinction seems fuzzy.  I can imagine running
>into difficulties.)

Ballistic is exactly the right word for what you are taking about.  It means
"like a cannon ball" and is typically used to describe the motion though
space of an object that is being influenced only by gravity.  So orbiting and
falling objects are all traveling Ballistically.  Technically "orbit" is the
correct word for the path of any ballistic object (even if the path just
happens to intersect the ground), although informally it is usually used for
closed paths that don't intersect the ground.  So the gismu could easily
taken to include all forms of ballistic motion not just closed orbits.

--
Mark Biggar
mab@wdl.loral.com