What are the different accelerations acting on a ballistic missile?

[Egomeh]

Hi

Im currently looking at ballistic missile curves and how to determin impact locations.

I found an article discussing this.

According to the article several accelerations act on the missile, including two I can't figure out.

These are called "propulsive acceleration" and "tangential acceleration of the launch site"

Can someone explain why these are not the same? or what they represent?

 

[mfb]

My guess: "propulsive acceleration" accounts for the issue that the propulsion might be a bit asymmetric.
"tangential acceleration of the launch site" would be an acceleration of the device due to recoil or other forces.

 

[Bobbywhy]

This seems to explain one of your questions:

“A company called Sea Launch Corporation launched its first satellite into orbit on Sunday. The company launches rockets from a converted offshore oil platform which can be moved to a location on the equator. Why do they launch from the equator?
Because the Earth is spinning, every point on the surface has a tangential speed proportional to its distance from the Earth's axis. Rocket launchers can take advantage of this tangential speed to give their rockets a head start on their journey into orbit, and the greatest tangential speed is obtained at locations furthest from the Earth's axis, i.e. on the equator.”

http://hep.physics.wayne.edu/~harr/courses/2130/f99/lecture11.htm

 

[tiny-tim]

judging from equations (1) and (13) of http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/ae/aymanma/images/Ballistic%20missile%20trajectory%20prediction%20using%20a%20state%20transition%20matrix.pdf ,

i think "propulsive acceleration" means the onboard rockets

and "tangential acceleration" seems to mean centripetal acceleration of the launch site

EDIT:

Because the Earth is spinning, every point on the surface has a tangential speed proportional to its distance from the Earth's axis

but the tangential acceleration is zero ​

 

[laddhoffman]

but the tangential acceleration is zero

[STRIKE]The tangential acceleration is also nonzero, because the tangential velocity, though constant in magnitude, is changing direction.[/STRIKE] Oh, wait, I see what you mean. Yes the Earth is not increasing or decreasing its rotation speed appreciably!. Though, if we want to take a larger view - i.e. we are launching a satellite beyond Earth orbit into the larger solar system, or beyond, then we should consider the velocity of the Earth and of the sun :)