Re: What would the end velocity be if...?

: Robert Israel <israel@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
: At 100 g ( 980 m/sec^2), to reach lightspeed (3*10^8 m/sec)
: would take about 3.06*10^5 sec (ignoring relativity, of course) 
: or 85 hours.  The accelerator would have to be about 4.59*10^13 m long,
: or 307 AU, extending into the inner Oort cloud.

Which oddly enough (unix "units" confirms for me), is about a hundredth
of a year.  Which one would expect right off the bat if one happens
to remember that 1g is about 1c/yr.  So, from my perspective, I would
say to myself, 100g gives you lightspeed in a hundredth of a year,
or three or four days.  Arbitrarily saying a tenth lightspeed is below
what's needed for significant relativistic effects, that means it takes
you something like 8 hours at 100g before you get significant effects.
Very handwavy and imprecise, but gives you the general ballpark with
minimal calculation.

 ( Though doing the calculation to yield "bam, zoom, to the inner
   Oord cloud, Alice" is nifty... )


    "He wasn't an astronaut, he was a sitcom actor. 
     And he was only using space travel as a metaphor 
     for beating his wife."

           --- Philip J. Fry


Wayne Throop   throopw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
   http://sheol.org/throopw