It's a long way to Alpha Centauri

Even though we have found an Earth sized planet around the nearest star Alpha Centauri B, we're not even close to getting there. To see this let's think about the duration of a flight to Alpha Centauri B, which is about 4 × 1 0 16 meters 4 \times 10^{16}~\mbox{meters} away. Imagine a rocket that accelerates at 0.1 g 0.1g for the first two years of its travel before it runs out of fuel and coasts for the rest of the trip at constant velocity. How long does the total trip take in years ? Note that the acceleration of our rocket is far beyond the reach of current technology - we're not close to interstellar travel anytime soon.

Details and assumptions

  • There are approximately 3.15 × 1 0 7 seconds 3.15 \times 10^7~\mbox{seconds} in a year.
  • Use g = 9.8 m/s 2 g=9.8~\mbox{m/s}^2 .
  • You can just use Newtonian mechanics.


The answer is 21.6.

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2 solutions

Winston Wright
May 20, 2014

using s=u t+1/2 a t^2, it can be found that 1.945 10^15 meters are traveled in the first two years. After that, the velocity is constant, and it takes 19.57 years to travel the remaining distance at 61740000 m/s

David Mattingly Staff
May 13, 2014

The distance traveled during the first two years is d 1 = 1 2 a t 2 = 0.49 × ( 2 × 3.15 × 1 0 7 ) 2 = 1.94 × 1 0 15 m d_1=\frac{1} {2} a t^2=0.49 \times (2 \times 3.15 \times 10^7)^2=1.94\times 10^{15}~\mbox{m} . The speed of the rocket after the first two years is v = 0.98 ( 2 × 3.15 × 1 0 7 ) v=0.98 (2 \times 3.15 \times 10^7) . The remaining distance of d 2 = 4 × 1 0 16 1.94 × 1 0 15 = 3.81 × 1 0 16 m d_2=4 \times 10^{16}-1.94\times 10^{15}=3.81 \times 10^{16}~\mbox{m} is therefore traversed in d 2 / v = 6.16 × 1 0 8 seconds d_2/v=6.16 \times 10^8~\mbox{seconds} . The total time is this time (converted to years) plus two years or 21.6 years 21.6~\mbox{years} .

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