Two spaceships with unlimited acceleration at 1 g leave space dock, the 2nd exactly 1 second after the first. They both accelerate in the same direction. What is the maximum distance the two ships will be separated by.
2006-11-15 10:42:05 · 3 answers · asked by Cirric 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Hi. You can't ignore the speed of light! Hint: The two ships will never be more than one second of time apart.
2006-11-15 11:26:42 · update #1
186,281.7 miles is the maximum distance due to the fact that they are always one second apart. (That is the exact speed of light in MPS.) Of course this is fantasy (not reality) due to the fact that nothing made of matter can travel at the speed of light, based on E=MC2.
2006-11-16 09:15:28 · answer #1 · answered by Smart Dude 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The first ship will always increase its lead (ignoring speed of light).
x(t) = 0.5 a t^2
x(t-1) = 0.5 a (t-1)^2
x(t) - x(t-1) = a(t - 0.5)
If you assume that you hit c(speed of light) and no more acceleration...Then t = c/a
c - 0.5a
2006-11-15 10:52:06 · answer #2 · answered by feanor 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
the distance approaches infinity as time approaches infinity.
2006-11-15 10:52:12 · answer #3 · answered by Tourniquet 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋