Can you combine two accelerations together?

[Zynoakib]

When I was doing an exercise on projectile motion, there was a question that asked something like the max. altitude reached by an accelerating rocket. After some calculations, I got 23.96ms-2 as the vertical acceleration, then I minus it with 9.8ms-2 (gravitational acceleration as the two accelerations, I thought, should work against each other). Turns out, this is wrong and I should calculate the rest with 23.96ms-2 as the vertical acceleration. So my question is, why am I not supposed to minus 23.96 with 9.8? Because you can combine tangential acceleration and radial acceleration together to give a "resultant acceleration", but why is it not my case?

Thanks!

 

[Puma]

I think you'll have to post the original question to get a clear reply. All that comes to mind is that gravity had already, in some way, been accounted for.

 

[Zynoakib]

Question 65

 

[russ_watters]

As Puma suggested, the acceleration given in the problem is the actual acceleration of the rocket, not the thrust of the engine.

 

[Zynoakib]

Thank you guys!