we all learned to call this a parabola, but you know what? it's a segment of an ellipse, because if that ground weren't there, it would go in an elliptical path with this focus, the center of the earth being the far focus and some nearer focus up here. and if you throw it faster, okay? it'll follow a wider ellipse with this again the focus here and this one over here, closer in here. and as you get closer and closer to a circle, this keeps moving right down till they're both together and now you get the special case of a circle and beyond that, then this one here just kinda move down there. and so that parabolic path is part of an ellipse. if i fire it faster than 9, it'd shoot out like that, maybe that's 10, maybe that's 11 and at 11, it'll... see it up there, see it, see it, see it? guess how fast it comes by? 11. now i'm gonna fire it at 11.2. goodbye, bye-bye, honey. 11.2, ain't gonna come back. 11.2 gonna outrun gravitational pullback, it's gonna outrun it, gonna escape. that's the escape speed. go at 11.2 kilometers per sec, 25,000 mile