How long would it take to reach the closest star if our ship could accelerate at exactly 1G halfway and then r

Question

How long would it take to reach the closest star if our ship could accelerate at exactly 1G halfway and then reverse & decelerate at 1G? How long to the center of the galaxy?

Answer 1

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/O/one-g_spacecraft.html

I wish I could go into the math, but this is the first time I've heard of a g spacecraft

Answer 2

Yep, I'll get back to you, too. Know that 1 G is REALLY fast acceleration, and it would take an extraordinary amount of energy to do that.

OK, here goes:

At 9.8 metres/sec/sec, the speed of light would be reached in 30,612,244 seconds, which is so close to a year that we'll call it that. So, after just under a year, the ship is travelling at just under the speed of light (it can't go faster). It would take one year to slow down again.

During that acceleration, it would have travelled about 0.5 light years, and the same during deceleration. The distance to the Alpha Centauri system is about 4.2 ly. So, 2 years accelerating and decelerating, and still 3.2 ly to go at just under light speed.

Therefore, let's say 5.5 years to an observer. On board the ship, relativistic effects would make the journey much quicker, but that's another story.

I have to say that was fun, but I'm prepared for some thumbs-downs, because I haven't used calculus in 20 years, and that would have given me more accuracy, and probably a completely different method anyway. I have a feeling that my time taken to accelerate and decelerate are based on a wrong assumption.

Answer 3

A back of the envelope calculation in General Relativity yields about 3 years to the nearest star, 25 years to the galactic center, as read on ship's clocks.

Answer 4

Assuming you mean the nearest star other than the sun, the answer depends on your reference frame. At 1G of acceleration, you would very quickly approach the speed of light as seen from earth, and an observer on earth would see you traveling for 5-6 years to get to the nearest star.

In your reference frame, however, relativisitic effects would dominate. Due to the phenomenon of time dilation, you would actually seem to get there in a matter of weeks! However, years would still have passed on the earth.

Weird, isn't it?

Answer 5

The formulas are a bit complicated, but here are the answers:

To the nearest star, 4.2 lightyears: 3.56 years
To center of galaxy, 30,000 lightyears: 20.07 years

This is for the time you would experience inside the rocket ship. For people back on Earth, it would seem like 5.93 years and 30,001.94 years respectively.

Now as to how much fuel you would use ...

Answer 6

no longer rather. I do while they famous person without answering however. usually the famous person comes till now the respond, so I see that somebody's starred it, and then i'm waiting patiently for an answer that may no longer coming. lol fortuitously this hardly happens, however. Plus i could infrequently carry it against all and sundry. ((((hugs))))

Answer 7

I have answered some questions like this which require some math, but right now I'm on my way out. I'll be back in a couple hours. If you don't have the answer by then, I'll help you figure it out.

One thing I know, though. You would definitely go faster than light speed. Is that allowed in the problem? It isn't possible, but for just the pure math exercise, I suppose we can figure it out that way.

Answer 8

Alpha Centauri. About 2.5 years IF a constant earths gravity acceleration could be achieved. Interesting. You have a good brain. I had this exact thought when I was 13 yrs old. If this question asked to most, they look at you with an empty mind. Keep up the good work my good friend!

Answer 9

You would die of old age long before the ship got anyplace near the nearest star. The center of the galaxy would take hundred of millions of Earth years to reach at any speed including the speed of light.

Answer 10

The closest star is the sun.