When you hear the term ballistic missile, you might wonder what the word ballistic actually means. Actually, Ballistic is a Physics Term. Imagine throwing a ball as far as you can. After it leaves your hand, it follows a certain path through the air. A missile which follows almost a similar path is called ballistic missile. Many people might think, ‘How can we compare the path of a simple stone with the path of a missile, that has a powerful rocket engines?.’ This is where misconceptions arise. A ballistic missile actually travels about 90% of the distance to its target without any rocket propulsion. This means the rocket engine only fires for the first 10% of the journey. After that, the missile coasts toward its target just like a ball out of our hands. That’s what the word ballistic refers to. But this isn’t the case with a cruise missile. A cruise missile has continuous propulsion from the moment it is launched until it reaches its destination. India’s BrahMos missile is a supersonic cruise missile. Until Russia’s Zircon missile was introduced in 2023, BrahMos held the title of the world’s fastest cruise missile. Ballistic missiles typically have a much longer range than cruise missiles. So, how can a ballistic missile travel such a long distance without continuous propulsion? What’s the real difference between a ballistic missile and a cruise missile? And what exactly is a hypersonic missile? Let’s explore all of this in the video.#BallisticMissile #MissileTechnology #CruiseMissile #HypersonicMissile #ICBM #MissileExplained #BrahMosMissile #ZirconMissile #MissileDefense #MilitaryTechnology #science #physics #science4mass #scienceformass #astronomyfacts #sciencefacts #astronomy #physicsfacts