Acceleration - Rocket 1d Kinematics

AI Thread Summary
NASA's Deep-Space 1 (DS-1) spacecraft is designed to rendezvous with asteroid 1992 KD, utilizing a propulsion system that ejects high-speed argon ions, increasing its velocity by 19.0 m/s daily. To achieve a velocity increase of 13,000 m/s, it will take approximately 684.21 days. Participants in the discussion are struggling to calculate the acceleration, with confusion surrounding the correct application of the acceleration formula. The correct average acceleration is defined as the change in velocity divided by the change in time, not distance. Despite the challenges, one participant acknowledges that they will still aim to understand the problem, even if it is past due.
Kildars
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Acceleration -- Rocket 1d Kinematics

NASA has developed Deep-Space 1 (DS-1), a spacecraft that is scheduled to rendezvous with the asteroid named 1992 KD (which orbits the sun millions of miles from the earth). The propulsion system of DS-1 works by ejecting high-speed argon ions out the rear of the engine. The engine slowly increases the velocity of DS-1 by about 19.0 m/s per day.

(a) How much time (in days) will it take to increase the velocity of DS-1 by 13000 m/s?
684.21 days

(b) What is the acceleration of DS-1 (in m/s2)?
m/s2

I got the days, but I can't find the acceleration, what am I missing?

I have tried to do 19.0 * 86400 which is how many seconds in one day.. and that doesn't work.. I have tried other things but too many things to list.
 
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Kildars said:
I have tried to do 19.0 * 86400 which is how many seconds in one day.. and that doesn't work.. I have tried other things but too many things to list.
Look again at the definition of acceleration. Look at your product. Are they consistent? It's a good habit to keep your units as you work through a problem. It will help you to know when your operations are not correct.
 
OlderDan said:
Look again at the definition of acceleration. Look at your product. Are they consistent? It's a good habit to keep your units as you work through a problem. It will help you to know when your operations are not correct.

Average Acceleration is \Delta x / \Delta t

but is this average acceleration?

45 minutes to get these last three figured out ;).
 
Dan?

I got 15 min :-p
 
Kildars said:
Average Acceleration is \Delta x / \Delta t

but is this average acceleration?

45 minutes to get these last three figured out ;).
Average Acceleration is \Delta v / \Delta t
In your earlier post, you calculated \Delta v * \Delta t
 
Thanks, assignment is past due but I'm still going to try and figure out, I'll just miss this problem, still an A no big deal.
 
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