Delta-v (physics)

Okay, imagine you have a toy car that you want to make go really fast. In order to make the car go faster, you need to give it more energy, like when you wind up the car and let it go. The change in speed that the car gets from this extra energy is called "delta-v."

Delta-v is like the speed boost that you get when you push a toy car or a swing or even when you ride a bike down a hill. It's the change in speed that you get from a change in your motion, whether it's from a push, a pull, or a difference in gravity.

In space, delta-v is really important because there's no air or other forces to slow down or speed up your spaceship. Instead, a spaceship has to use its own engines to change its speed and direction. The amount of delta-v that a spaceship has is like the amount of "gas" or power that it has to use to get where it's going.

So, just like how you need to give your toy car energy to make it go faster, a spaceship needs to use its engines to change its speed (its delta-v) and get where it's going in space. The more delta-v a spaceship has, the farther it can go and the more things it can do in space.