The Irish Moonshot (Mechanics M3)

In theory it is possible, but very impractical, to release a stack of about 26 perfectly elastic spherical balls from just one metre above the ground in such a way that the uppermost ball rebounds and escapes the Earth (known as the Irish Moonshot). I thought those of you currently studying M3 might find this famous problem (which is generalised to n balls) quite interesting. I'll post my solution later.

@TeeEm I thought you might find this interesting

(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1

Krollo

17

Very nice problem. My solution was a bit awkward, but it worked (I believe) - essentially considering the general collision, establishing a recurrence and then inducting to victory. No doubt your method is much nicer.

Reply 2

A Slice of Pi

OP

13

Original post by Krollo

Very nice problem. My solution was a bit awkward, but it worked (I believe) - essentially considering the general collision, establishing a recurrence and then inducting to victory. No doubt your method is much nicer.

That's a nice approach. I did something similar in a rough method. I'm going to type up a neater one but don't know when I'll get round to posting it (later today or tomorrow) because I've been tied up with A-level chemistry :frown: