On Jun 16, 12:46 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
writes:
The intitial velocity limitation says 'vertical'. I don't care what
size the 'walnut' is, it will be impacted given there was no
horizontal velocity component.

There is always a horizontal component, although one isn't really necessary.

Even if there was, by the way, the Newtonian physics demand the path
will cross the starting point, and the implication to most readers
would be that was on a surface.

If there's a surface in the way, the starting point and ending point will be
different.

Care to write an equation or two to demonstrate that? It's a two body
problem, one massive with respect to the other. The initial conditions
are a vertical impulse from the surface, of a massive sphere. That's
high school physics.