Junes Verne in 1865 suggested sending people to the Moon by firing a space capsule from a 210 m long cannon...

Question

Junes Verne in 1865 suggested sending people to the Moon by firing a space capsule from a 210 m long cannon with a launch speed of 12.12 km/s. What would have been the unrealistically large acceleration experienced by the space travelers during launch?

Answer 1

Let t be time of travel in cannon.

210 m = 1/2 a t^2
420 m = a t^2
12120 m/s = a t
(12120)(12120) m^2/s^2 = a^2 t^2 .....Divide by 2nd line to get:
(12120)(12120) / (420) m/s^2 = 349,749 m/s^2= a

Since gravitational acceleration is g = 9.8 m/s^2, we have

(349,749) / 9.8 = 35,688 g's

So, a 100 pound female would weigh 3,568,800 pounds.

Answer 2

about 35 Kilometers per second. The person would come out as a glob of fried meat at the canon's mouth