Deriving Rocket's position from acceleration.

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ShizukaSm
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Homework Statement


There's a short introduction saying that honing missiles can determine their position by utilizing their acceleration, then the problem says: Suppose that the missile's acceleration obeys the following equations:
[tex] \\<br /> a_x = 0.8\\<br /> a_y = -6.0 - 3.0t[/tex]
Knowing that, in [itex]t = 0[/itex], [itex]v_x = 600 km/h[/itex] and [itex]v_y = 0[/itex], calculate the missile's displacement in ten seconds. (Answer is 2.2km)

Homework Equations



Just the equations already provided.

The Attempt at a Solution


Alright, so, what I tried to do was integrating the acceleration two consecutive times to arrive at an equation for x(t) and y(t), which gave me:
[tex] \\<br /> x(t) = 0.4 t^2 + 600t + x_o\\<br /> y(t) = \frac{-1}{2}t^3 - 3t^2 + y_0[/tex]

Then I attempted to get the displacement of both axes(Using time = 1/360h, since I have to convert 10 seconds to hours):
[tex] \\<br /> x(10)-x(0) = 1.67km\\<br /> y(10)-y(0) = -2.3*10^{-5} km[/tex]
And then, by calculating[itex]sqrt(x^2 + y^2)[/itex]I obviously get pretty much 1.67km, which is wrong.
 
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haruspex said:
What are the units of distance and time in those equations?

That's a great question. I just realized it says in parenthesis (SI Units), so m/s. In other words, I shouldn't convert time to seconds, I should convert km/h to m/s. However, by converting 600 km/h to 166.67 m/s and doing the necessary calculations I still obtain only 1884.26 m(With x =1706 and y = -800) : S
 
haruspex said:
ax = 0.8 looks suspicious. Why so much less than ay? If you make it 8.0 you get the book answer.

Wow, you're absolutely right! Wonderful! Thanks.

It definitely says 0.8 and It's actually an online list of exercises, not a textbook, so I find very possible that the person that typed it made a mistake.