Rocketry Glossary

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Impulse (Specific)

A measure of the efficiency of a motor/propellant system. It is determined by taking the Total Impulse and dividing by the weight of propellants. This carries the potentially confusing units of "seconds" (as if it had something to do with the burn duration) but is due to weight and thrust both being force parameters hence canceling out (e.g. lb-sec/lb or N-sec/N). This is actually very handy since it makes the term independent of the units system (metric or English) since they both use "seconds" for time.


   

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