Re: Launch Rails...

From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sat Apr 15 2000 - 00:42:10 MDT


> > Michael S. Lorrey wrote: Practical questions:
> > How long does the rail need to be to accelerate up to 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 and
> > 8,000 mph respectively?
>
> At 4 G, I get 13 miles, 51 miles, 115 miles and 204 miles respectively.
>
> At 6 G, I get 8 miles, 34 miles, 76 miles and 136 miles respectively.

Doooh! I thought these numbers looked high. Missed em all
by a factor of 2. The right answers are

At 4 G, I get 6 miles, 25 miles, 57 miles and 102 miles respectively.

At 6 G, I get 4 miles, 17 miles, 38 miles and 68 miles respectively.

> And lets dispense with these english schminglish units. We
> lose interplanetary probes that way... {8-[

Thats it! Its all the fault of the UNITS! Not my fault at all.
{8^D This shows to go ya, English units are very non-
intuitive for space calcs.



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