Proper time and Earth time for a relativistic rocket at 0.1 g

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billdrix
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I'm over my head and need help for a story I am writing. I would like the science to be correct. I'm not sure I'm even phrasing the problem correctly, but here goes.

Suppose a spaceship will travel to a star that appears 10 light years from earth. The spaceship will accelerate at 0.1 g (as experienced by the ship) for half the trip then turn around and accelerate the opposite rest of the time. What would be the integrals for determining the proper time and the time as it appears to people on earth?

Thanks

Billdrix
 
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This page on the http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/rocket.html is just what you need. :biggrin:
 
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Thank you very much. It appears that I'll have to cheat. :(
 
I just realized that page just shows the results of doing the integral, not the integral itself. I'm sure it's been discussed here before. Try the following Google search:

"relativistic rocket" integral site:physicsforums.com

and poke around in the old threads that this turns up. To broaden the search outside of PF, leave off the site:physicsforums.com bit.