Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system, about 4 light years from Earth. Assume that an ion rocket has been built to travel to Alpha Centauri. Suppose the exhaust velocity of the ions is one-tenth the speed of light. Let the initial mass of the fuel be twice that of the payload (ignore the mass of the rocket, itself). Also, assume that it takes about 100 hours to exhaust all the fuel of the rocket. How long does it take the rocket to reach Alpha Centauri? (The speeds are small enough that you can neglect the effects of special relativity.)
We need at least 10 more requests to produce the solution.
0 / 10 have requested this problem solution
The more requests, the faster the answer.