Question

In 1865, Jules Verne proposed sending men to the Moon by firing a space capsule from a 220-m-long cannon with final speed of 10.97 km/s. What would have been the unrealistically large acceleration experienced by the space travelers during their launch? (A human can stand an acceleration of 15g for a short time.) Compare your answer with the free-fall acceleration, 9.80 m/s^2.

Answer 1

The acceleration experienced by the space travelers during their launch would be considered unrealistically large. It would exceed both the limits of human endurance and the acceleration experienced during free fall.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the acceleration experienced by the space travelers during their launch, we can use the formula:

Acceleration = (Final Velocity - Initial Velocity) / Time

In this case, the final velocity is given as 10.97 km/s, and the initial velocity is 0 m/s (since the spaceship starts from rest). The time is not provided, so we cannot calculate the exact acceleration. However, we can compare it to the acceleration that a human can withstand, which is 15g for a short time. One g is equivalent to the acceleration due to gravity, which is approximately 9.8 m/s².

So, 15g is equal to 15 * 9.8 m/s² = 147 m/s². Therefore, any acceleration larger than 147 m/s² would be unrealistically large for the space travelers during their launch.

Comparing this with the free-fall acceleration, which is approximately 9.8 m/s², we can see that the acceleration proposed by Jules Verne would be much larger than both the limits of human endurance and the acceleration experienced during free fall.