What aspect of physics was not known by the writer of this newspaper editorial that ridiculed early experiments by Robert H. Goddard on rocket propulsion above Earth’s atmosphere? “Professor Goddard … does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react … he seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”
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Rocket doesn't travel upward because of the reaction force of air resistance. The reason why the rocket travels upward is because of the reaction forces of exhausted gasses.