Constant acceleration question

[DawnJohn]

Homework Statement

An interstlear ship has a mass of 8.97 kg x10^6 and is initially at rest to a star system. What constant acceleration is needed to bring the ship up to a speed of 0.51C, relative to the star system in three days.

Homework Equations

constant acceleration = v2-v1/t2-t1

The Attempt at a Solution

a=1.5x10^7/1.3 x 10^5
a=120 m/s^2?

Help!

 

[hage567]

Can you show how you got the numbers you used?

 

[DawnJohn]

Constant acceleration numbers...

the numbers I used were:

Time is 3 days (posted in question)=36 hours=2160 minutes = 129 600 or 1.3 x 10^5
Speed is .051c (c=3.0 x 10^8) .051 x 3.0 = 1.5 x10 ^7

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to be approaching this question? Any help would be greatly appreciated=)

 

[Vidatu]

Done right, but with a lot of mistakes. Check your math:

3 days =/= 36 hours.

 

[hage567]

OK, in your original post you have it as 0.51c so I didn't get the same number. Also, there are 24 hrs in a day, not 12. So it would be 72 hrs for 3 days.

 

[DawnJohn]

Oops, I've been doing this way to long...thanks for pointing that out, I think my brain is turning to mush! I'll try again, thanks for your help!