Example: An Air Force F-15 fighter is cruising at 400 mph. The pilot advances the throttles to full afterburner and accelerates to 1,200 mph in 20 seconds. What is the average acceleration in mph/s and fps/s?

In the example just shown, the acceleration was found to be 58.7 fps/s. Since 32.2 fps/s is equal to the acceleration due to gravity, divide the F-15’s acceleration by 32.2 to find out how many G forces the pilot is experiencing. In this case, it would be 1.82 Gs.

When a magician snatches a tablecloth from a table and leaves a full setting of dishes undisturbed, he is not displaying a mystic art; he is actually demonstrating the principle of inertia. Inertia is responsible for the discomfort felt when an airplane is brought to a sudden halt in the parking area and the passengers are thrown forward in their seats. Inertia is a property of matter. This property of matter is described by Newton’s first law of motion, which states:

Objects at rest tend to remain at rest and objects in motion tend to remain in motion at the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted on by an external force.

Bodies in motion have the property called momentum. A body that has great momentum has a strong tendency to remain in motion and is therefore hard to stop. For example, a train moving at even low velocity is difficult to stop because of its large mass. Newton’s second law applies to this property. It states:

When a force acts upon a body, the momentum of that body is changed. The rate of change of momentum is proportional to the applied force. Based on Newton’s second law, the formula for calculating thrust is derived, which states that

chapter, it was determined that mass equals weight divided by gravity, and acceleration equals velocity final minus velocity initial divided by time. Putting all these concepts together, the formula for thrust is:

Example: A turbojet engine is moving 150 lb of air per second through the engine. The air enters going 100 fps and leaves going 1,200 fps. How much thrust, in pounds, is the engine creating?

and reaction. It states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if a force is applied to an object, the object will supply a resistive force exactly equal to and in the opposite direction of the force applied. It is easy to see how this might apply to objects at rest. In application, as a man stands on the floor, the floor exerts a force against his feet exactly equal to his weight. This law is also applicable when a force is applied to an object in motion.

Forces always occur in pairs. The term “acting force” means the force one body exerts on a second body, and reacting force means the force the second body exerts on the first.

When an aircraft propeller pushes a stream of air backward with a force of 500 lb, the air pushes the blades forward with a force of 500 lb. This forward force causes the aircraft to move forward. A turbofan engine exerts a force on the air entering the inlet duct, causing it to accelerate out the fan duct and the tailpipe. The air accelerating to the rear is the action, and the force inside the engine that makes it happen is the reaction, also called thrust.