Need someone with some good CAS

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around modeling a rocket's flight, specifically focusing on calculating the mass expulsion rate and exhaust velocity of a water rocket. Participants explore the use of flight formulas and the challenges associated with solving a particular equation related to this modeling.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • The original poster (OP) seeks assistance in calculating the mass expulsion rate for a rocket model, referencing an article that may contain relevant equations.
  • Some participants clarify that CAS refers to a computer algebra system, such as Mathematica, which may be useful for solving complex equations.
  • One participant suggests that the equation in question appears to be transcendental, indicating that a closed form solution for the variable p may not exist and recommends a numerical approach instead.
  • Another participant challenges the correctness of the equation provided by the OP, pointing out issues with dimensionality and negative time, and presents a revised equation that they claim is the correct form derived from the referenced article.
  • This participant notes that their corrected equation also remains unsolvable in a closed form.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the correctness of the equation cited by the OP, with one participant asserting it is incorrect and providing an alternative. There is no consensus on the best approach to solving the problem, and the discussion remains unresolved regarding the validity of the equations and methods proposed.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include potential errors in the original equation's formulation, as noted by participants, and the complexity of the equations involved, which may not yield closed form solutions.

MigMRF
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Trying to figure out how to model a rocket, and I got some pretty decent flight formulas. The only thing i need is to calculate how fast the masse is expelled. Found an article: (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253753714_Analysis_of_a_water-propelled_rocket_A_problem_in_honors_physics) which seems to have the solution which is:
1576610132969.png

So i tried to solve for p, but my CAS isn't strong enough to solve it. Is there anyone who got an idea of how to solve it.

BTW
If someone manage to solve it, the plan is to but the function inside:
1576610292171.png

Which gives me the exhaust velocity of the water rocket.
 
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What is CAS?

Google:

1576618264016.png
 
CAS = computer algebra system. E.g., Mathematica.

To answer OP, that equation looks pretty transcendental to me. Meaning that there's likely no closed form expression for p. You'd probably be better off tackling it numerically.
 
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The equation posted by OP and printed in the cited AJP article is incorrect. One can see that immediately because (a) the argument of the arctangents is not dimensionless and (b) the time is negative because ##p_0>p>p_a##. The correct equation (that still cannot be solved) is$$t=\frac{p_0 V_0}{p_a A_e} \sqrt{\frac{\rho _w}{2}}\left[ \sqrt{ \frac{p_0-p_a}{p_0}}-\sqrt{ \frac{p-p_a}{p}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{p_a}}\left( \tan ^{-1}\sqrt{\frac{p_0-p_a}{p_a}}-\tan ^{-1}\sqrt{\frac{p-p_a}{p_a}}\right)\right]$$
I got this by solving equation (7) in the reference. It seems that its author dropped the negative sign and coded the radicals incorrectly.
 
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Likes   Reactions: TeethWhitener

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