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But the problem with escape velocity is that you'll need to constantly accelerate in order to maintain escape velocity. Something moving away from the Earth (or whatever big M is in this universe) is constantly losing kinetic energy and gaining potential energy. How do we maintain escape velocity?
I really don't see how an object that loses kinetic energy can continue along a straight line. And if it moves along a curved path, then how is it not ultimately a closed orbit? What happens when kinetic energy is zero?
The only way I can picture this is to imagine something that is losing a constant percentage of its KE, but never reaching zero. Maybe this can happen, idk. How much does escape velocity change over distance?
I hope my wall of text has at least made you question this more. The moon is not at constant distance from the Earth.
It's changing it's PE -> it's changing it's KE-> it's changing it's |v| -> it's accelerating.
I'm still not satisfied with this. I feel like "acceleration" in the context you're explaining it is Newtonian, not Einsteinian. Newton would say the Moon changes velocity, but Einstein would say that it moves at a constant speed in a straight line through curved space. If something is moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it is not accelerating.
Acceleration depends on frame of reference. One person observes acceleration while another person doesn't. So who is right?
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