Recent content by jobendorfer

I tried your suggestion u = r/r_max: dr = r_max*du Integral[ r_max*du/sqrt( 1/u*r_max - 1/r_max ) ] With a bit of algebra: r_max^1.5 * Integral [ du / sqrt( 1/u - 1 ) ] I fed that integral into Mathematic 6's Integrate function as: Integrate[ (1/u - 1)^-0.5, u] What I got...

Ehild, Thanks for the welcome and for your help. Very much appreciated! I've been lurking here off and on for years, I just tend to read and listen a lot more than I write -- for some strange reason. :-) J.

Homework Statement A comet is released from rest at a distance r_max from the sun. Therefore it has no angular momentum. We can assume the sun is a point mass ( i.e. sun's radius is zero ). How long does it take for the comet to hit the sun? Let m = comet mass let M_s = sun's mass...