The escape velocity for any object on Earth is a seven miles per second. That's the speed you need to get into orbit. So, the space station and the space shuttle and Elon Musk and all these folks orbit the Earth at five miles perSecond. The top speed of a soccer ball would be anywhere near 130 miles an hour.
How do bikes and motorcycles stay up? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly explain how to kick a ball into orbit, what’s going on with cricket, and the physics of bicycles.
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Photo Credit: NASA/W. Liller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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