If we assume we are in a perfect vacuum in space, where there’s no friction or anything to slow us down, at what point would bursts of fuel from thrusters stop increasing our speed? And would they even?
Now, I understand that by einstein, we need infinite energy to accelerate to speed of light, but i cant intuitively see how a rocket wouldnt constantly speed up in a vacuum when given constant bursts of rocket thrust. Im sure im missing something pretty simple here, but nevertheless.
In: 4
First of all you need to understand how does the rocket accelerate:
Controlled explosion, if you make a controlled explosion in the opposite side of the rocket u will start moving forward due to the “For every reaction there’s an equal opposite reaction”.
Taking that into account the amount of power that the explosion has is the “top speed” it can achieve, in a extremely perfect scenario the maximum speed will be the speed of the expansion of the explosion.
I want to mention I didn’t use any numbers due to the different fuels and mixtures u got which I’m no expert on.
Latest Answers