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<blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 7486256" data-attributes="member: 13107">To be accurate, be careful to include both energy and momentum in the physics of the collision.&nbsp; If I have the right sense of it, a very fast small object hitting a larger relatively still object either, with an elastic collision, bounces off at high speed (transferring momentum and a little energy) or with an inelastic collision does a lot of local damage and transfers almost the same momentum.&nbsp; (This is a classic physics test problem, with the key observation being whether the collision is elastic or not, which tells you what analysis to do.)As what Umbran said: The push should be perpendicular to the line of motion of the asteroid.&nbsp; A perpendicular push will create the greatest deviation.&nbsp; There is a case of a skimming trajectory, where the straight line motion of the asteroid would miss, but gravity curves the asteroid path into the earth, where it seems that speeding up the asteroid should work.Some other considerations: How far away the asteroid starts from the earth, and at what speed, compared with escape velocity (11.2 km/s) and orbital velocity for a circular orbit (about 7.6 km/s): If the asteroid is left with less than escape velocity, the asteroid may go into orbit, or may impact the earth at a later time because of the particulars of the changed orbit the asteroid.Thx!TomB</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tomBitonti, post: 7486256, member: 13107"] To be accurate, be careful to include both energy and momentum in the physics of the collision. If I have the right sense of it, a very fast small object hitting a larger relatively still object either, with an elastic collision, bounces off at high speed (transferring momentum and a little energy) or with an inelastic collision does a lot of local damage and transfers almost the same momentum. (This is a classic physics test problem, with the key observation being whether the collision is elastic or not, which tells you what analysis to do.) As what Umbran said: The push should be perpendicular to the line of motion of the asteroid. A perpendicular push will create the greatest deviation. There is a case of a skimming trajectory, where the straight line motion of the asteroid would miss, but gravity curves the asteroid path into the earth, where it seems that speeding up the asteroid should work. Some other considerations: How far away the asteroid starts from the earth, and at what speed, compared with escape velocity (11.2 km/s) and orbital velocity for a circular orbit (about 7.6 km/s): If the asteroid is left with less than escape velocity, the asteroid may go into orbit, or may impact the earth at a later time because of the particulars of the changed orbit the asteroid. Thx! TomB [/QUOTE]

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