A question for a brainiac

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OP
OP
mickle

mickle

innit
If my spaceship accelerates at a constant rate of 1G how long will it take to reach the speed of light and how far will i have travelled in that time.
 

Norm

Guest
Can you confirm that you mean 'how far' and 'how long' as measured by the observer because I'm not sure I'm up to incorporating relativity into the calculations.
 
Approx. 1G is about 10m/s per second. The speed of light is 300,000,000m/s. Therefore it will take 300,000,000/10 or 30 million seconds to get to the speed of light. Which equates to about 350 days or one year. Since the acceleration is constant from zero to the speed of light the distance travelled in a year will be about half a light year. More precisely the distance travelled is s=0.5a.t². a= 10m/s², t=30,000,000 so s=4.5.10¹⁵m or just under half a light year as expected.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
I'm not exactly a brainiac but remembering a bit of school physics- I can remember equations of motion at least- I make it a few days short of a year. There's probably all sorts of relativistic shoot that says my answer is bollocks though.

Oh, you want distance too. Hang on...
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
A few days short of a year being 354 days. You can get a pretty long way in a year, assuming my calculation isn't wildly off. You'd need plenty fuel, I don't intend to calculate how much.
 
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