Kinematics!

[oldaccount1]

I'm trying to do some extra stuff for a story I'm writing for physics class.

I have a ship traveling to a planet that's 15 billion kilometers away from it's starting point. I want it to accelerate, coast, and then eventually decelerate in a total of 28 days. I'm trying to figure out how to set up an equation for this. Any ideas?

[neowin_hipster]

I'm pretty sure its safe to neglect gravity etc. Just to get an idea of where we are going to get as a result i notice a few things. Acceleration time is undefined, acceleration velocity is undefined, deceleration velocity is undefined, and trip time is undefined. Is acceleration constant?

There's some assumptions we will have to make. Write them down mathematically and if possible try defining one as a function of another. Write all equations down you can think of.

Then if you still need it, you will get help for the next step.

[oldaccount1]

Okay. The story I'm writing calls for a ship traveling to another planet, achieving orbit, then doing some tests. If I wanted the ship's acceleration to be 10,000 m/s until it achieves a velocity of 500,000 m/s, how can I safely determine how long it will take to achieve the top speed, for how long it stays in that top speed, and how deceleration would work mathematically?

[XIII]

Assuming acceleration and deceleration has the same magnitude, just different in direction.

Use this formula: v^2- v(0)^2=2*a*s and s=v*t+1/2a*t^2 for the acceleration and deceleration process.

Then, for the remaining path, just s=v*t.

The sum of time will be 28 days and the sum of distance travel will be 15 billion kilometers.

[dreamz Veteran]

moved here

goalie_ca was right on track. start with your basic variables (to make things easier, don't even think about numbers here. just keep them as variables) and equations.