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Long-distance free fall

Authors :
Gallant, Joseph
Carlson, James
Source :
The Physics Teacher. March, 1999, Vol. 37 Issue 3, p166, 2 p.
Publication Year :
1999

Abstract

It took the devil 9 days to fall to hell in John Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' so a physics student can use Newtonian laws of motion to calculate the distance between earth and hell, assuming hell is not at the center of the earth. The distance is found to be 22.5 times the distance between the earth and the moon. This is significantly larger than Milton's value of 3 times the radius of the earth.

Details

ISSN :
0031921X
Volume :
37
Issue :
3
Database :
Gale General OneFile
Journal :
The Physics Teacher
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsgcl.54250731