The Monkey King’s Somersault

Yannic Chen

Abstract


The Monkey King is a famous fictional character from ancient Chinese literature. A famous saying is that he can travel a distance of 54,000km on a somersault. Such a distance requires a jump height of 13,500km. This feat is inefficient on the Earth, which has dimensions smaller than the jump and as a result, may only be helpful in the Heavenly Kingdom with unknown properties and parameters.


Keywords


Book; Physics; Mechanics; Sun Wukong; Journey to the West

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References


Nave, R. (no date). Trajectories. Retrieved 28. February 2014 from Hyperphysics: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/traj.html

Rosenberg, M. (14. September 2012). Basic Earth Facts. Retrieved 28. February 2014 from About.com: http://geography.about.com/od/learnabouttheearth/a/earthfacts.htm

National Geographic. (no date). Earth's Atmosphere. Retrieved 28. February 2014 from National Geographic: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/earths-atmosphere/

Encyclopedia Astronautica. (no date). SSME. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from Astronautix: http://www.astronautix.com/engines/ssme.htm


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