A spaceship of mass 2.35 ✕ 106 kg is to be accelerated to a speed of 0.745c.?
A spaceship of mass 2.35 ✕ 106 kg is to be accelerated to a speed of 0.745c.
(a) What minimum amount of energy does this acceleration require from the spaceship's fuel, assuming perfect efficiency
I got this question wrong.. I don't think I got the equation down correctly.
(b) How much fuel would it take to provide this much energy if all the rest energy of the fuel could be transformed to kinetic energy of the spaceship?
Can somebody please help??
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relativistic total energy is:
E = mc²γ
Relativistic KE = mc²γ–mc² = mc²(γ–1)
γ = 1/√(1–V²/c²)
2.35 ✕ 106 kg = 249.1 kg, that is a very light spaceship.
γ = 1/√(1–0.745²) = 1.499
E = mc²(γ–1)
E = 249•0.499•9e16 = 1.12e19 J