Propulsion

Common card · No. 241916

Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing and/or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. A propulsion system is a machine system consisting of at least two core elements: the powerplant, a source of mechanical power; and the propulsor, an actuator mechanism that converts the supplied power into propulsive force; often also with supplementary components such as transmission and control system that enhance the final outcome of the propulsion system. Plucking a guitar string to induce a vibratory translation is technically a form of propulsion for the guitar string; this is not commonly depicted in this vocabulary, even though human muscles are considered to propel the fingertips. The motion of an object moving through a gravitational field is affected by the field, and within some frames of reference physicists speak of the gravitational field generating...

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