Brilli the ant is moving on a straight line, and it is currently at with velocity
It wants to move to in exactly one second, and its magnitude of acceleration is always smaller than
What is the maximum velocity in when it gets to
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Suppose Brilli starts with velocity v 0 , decelerates at rate a 1 until time t 1 and then accelerates at rate a 2 from t 1 to t f . The final distance is x f , giving the following relation.
2 1 ( v 0 + v 1 ) t 1 + 2 1 ( v 1 + v f ) ( t f − t 1 ) = x f v 1 = v 0 − a 1 t 1 v f = v 1 + a 2 ( t f − t 1 )
Our task is to find t 1 , a 1 , a 2 such that the following are satisfied:
1) The equations above hold true
2) The quantity v f is maximized
3) Accelerations are no larger than 1
Performing this optimization yields:
a 1 = a 2 = 1 t 1 ≈ 0 . 2 9 2 9 v f = 2 ≈ 1 . 4 1 4 2