Escape Velocity

A rocket needs to travel ~25,000 miles per hour (mph) in order to “escape” the Earth’s gravitational pull and launch into space.  This is called “Escape Velocity”.  The bigger the planet, the higher the escape velocity.  For example, the escape velocity on Jupiter is ~133,000 mph.  For the Sun it is ~1,389,000 mph.  Well, there is a similar “threshold” for people who are trying to go on a vacation, but this kind of “escape velocity” is measured in hours of preparation (hop). For example, a 16 year- old boy requires about 0.008 hop (that is ~30 seconds) to prepare for an adventure: as long as it takes to grab a fishing pole and a corn dog and jump in the car. A larger unit like a family of four can take up to twenty or thirty hop. For our family of nine, the escape velocity approaches somewhere near the thousands of hop. J Needless to say, the last few months of our lives have been devoted almost entirely to amassing the critical momentum to leave our property.  I am proud to announce that we have finally achieved “escape velocity”.  

Houston, we have lifted off!

~Roy