In his novel From the Earth to the Moon (1866), Jules Verne describes a spaceshi
ID: 1692857 • Letter: I
Question
In his novel From the Earth to the Moon (1866), Jules Verne describes a spaceship that is blasted out of 12,000 yards/s. the Columbiad is 900 ft long, but part of it is packed with poweder, so the spaceship accelerates over a distance of only 700 ft. Estimate the acceleration experienced by the occupants of the spaceship during launch. Give your answer in m/s2. (Verne realized that the "travelers would...encounter a violent recoil," but he probably didn't know that people generally lose consciousness if they experience accelerations greater than about 7g ~70 m/s2.)I don't know which equation to use because I need V final and acceleration?? I would really appreciate some help on this.
Explanation / Answer
Found this on the net convert yds to m and ft to m 12000 yd/s = 10972.8 m/s 700 ft = 213.36 m then use Vf^2 = Vi^2 + 2 a d solve for a 10972.8^2 = 0 + 2 a (213.36) I get about 2.82E5 m/s/s or about 2.82E4 g's which is over 4000 times 7 g's and is most likely well beyond the limits of the structural integrity of the human body, not to mention the structure of his spaceship