4 ms·
If something at rest is accelerating at 9.8 m/s^2, how long in seconds will it take to reach 10% of c? Answer to the nearest order of magnitude - will it take a
by saimiam 1mo ago
If something at rest is accelerating at 9.8 m/s^2, how long in seconds will it take to reach 10% of c? Answer to the nearest order of magnitude - will it take approximately 1000, 10k, 100k, 1000k seconds?
I’m sure you know this is an exponential growth question but have no intuition of the answer.
- MajesticHobo2 1mo agoThat is a linear growth problem whose answer is very easy to intuit.
- saimiam 1mo agoIt’s not a linear growth problem. Acceleration is quadratic. As per your intuition, how many seconds later will you hit 10% of c?
- redsocksfan45 1mo ago[dead]
- yunwal 1mo agoAcceleration is not quadratic with respect to speed/velocity, and c is a speed/velocity.
- kccqzy 1mo agoYou must be joking. A high schooler with a few hours of physics classes can intuit the answer.
- learningstud 1mo agoUntil special relativity kicks in to completely invalidate whatever intuition you have about this problem.
- redsocksfan45 1mo ago[dead]
- saimiam 1mo agoHow is this a joke? Knowing exponents and how to apply it is not the same as having any intuition about what the actual value of a certain exponential function will be at a certain point and when it crosses a threshold.
- redsocksfan45 1mo ago[dead]
- kccqzy 1mo agoThere’s no exponential function involved, which is why this is easy to intuit. A true exponential function would indeed be difficult to intuit.
- imtringued 1mo agoYou should have asked something simpler. Let's say you have infinite ships traveling at light speed originating from earth trying to colonize the entire universe. All of this is funded by borrowing capital from earth and earth expects a 5% annual return in perpetuity. The space ships must pay interest to earth and if they fail to pay it, they are not allowed to perform further colonization. Will earth manage to colonize the entire universe? Aka, can the infinite number of at light speed traveling ships outrun the interest payments? After answering that question this one should be easy: What if the universe was infinitely large and infinite growth was possible?