maths is all around us it's almost
impossible to think of something that's
made without the help of mathematics
buildings transport technology medicine
even clothes and food or rely on numbers
measurements and sums since man first
looked to the Stars we have dreamed of
exploring worlds beyond our own in the
last century the Space Age began as
first satellites were launched into
space followed by animals humans and now
entire space stations but it's extremely
difficult to leave our planet and enter
space requiring complex maths to
calculate the massive amount of opposing
force to escape the Earth's gravity just
try to jump upwards that force pushing
you back to earth is gravity one
projectile that can create enough energy
to beat gravity is the rocket early
rockets were wild inaccurate and almost
impossible to control modern rockets
however rely on complex maths to reach
space Rockets gain speed known as thrust
by igniting backfiring gasses from the
rocket engine creating a huge explosion
this force generates more kinetic energy
than Earth's gravity thrust propels the
rocket into the air fast enough to
escape the speed required to do this is
around 11 km/s or over 40,000 kilometers
per hour that's around 120 times the
take-off speed of a jumbo jet using math
scientists can calculate the amount of
fuel that's needed to create enough
thrust to escape Earth's gravity the
quantity of fuel needed depends on both
the weight of the rocket and the cargo
or payload that it carries
but these calculations are dependent on
gravity and the bigger the planet the
greater the force a rocket launching
from Saturn for example would need to
reach 35 point 6 kilometers per second
while in zero gravity the tiniest amount
of thrust would propel the rocket a very
long way as there would be no force to
stop it precise mathematics is also
needed in order to steer the rocket in
the right direction with such high speed
travel even the smallest error could
result in a rocket strain thousands of
kilometers off course nowadays computers
calculate and control space travel but
the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 relied on
less powerful technology than the
average modern smartphone imagine what
clever mathematics was used to get those
first astronauts to land safely on the
moon maths has conquered our planet and
made space travel a reality who knows
what the future holds there's almost no
limit to the ways that maths benefits
humanity