How fast can it be?

Brilli the ant is moving on a straight line, and it is currently at 0 cm 0\text{ cm} with velocity 1 cm/s . 1\text{ cm/s}.

It wants to move to 1 cm 1\text{ cm} in exactly one second, and its magnitude of acceleration is always smaller than 1 cm/s 2 . 1\text{ cm/s}^2.

What is the maximum velocity ( ( in cm/s ) \text{cm/s}) when it gets to 1 cm ? 1\text{ cm}?


The answer is 1.4142.

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1 solution

Steven Chase
Oct 27, 2018

Suppose Brilli starts with velocity v 0 v_0 , decelerates at rate a 1 a_1 until time t 1 t_1 and then accelerates at rate a 2 a_2 from t 1 t_1 to t f t_f . The final distance is x f x_f , giving the following relation.

1 2 ( v 0 + v 1 ) t 1 + 1 2 ( 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 ) \large{\frac{1}{2} (v_0 + v_1) t_1 + \frac{1}{2} (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 t_1, a_1, a_2 such that the following are satisfied:

1) The equations above hold true
2) The quantity v f v_f is maximized
3) Accelerations are no larger than 1 1

Performing this optimization yields:

a 1 = a 2 = 1 t 1 0.2929 v f = 2 1.4142 \large{a_1 = a_2 = 1 \\ t_1 \approx 0.2929 \\ v_f = \sqrt{2} \approx 1.4142}

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