A particle is travelling from point A to point B. These two points are separated by distance D. Assume that the initial velocity of the particle is zero.

Given that the particle never increases its acceleration along its journey, and that the particle arrives at point B with speed V, what is the longest time that the particle can take to arrive at B?

The Distance is irevalant. And no It can't slow down. The Journey coudl take forever or nearly so. Using ΔX=V0t^2+.5at, you can rearrange that to get the equation of  T=√2ΔX/a  and if your accelleration was 1*10-∞ You would end up with some number soo small that it woulld virtually be zero without encounterng that whole little division by zero thing, because we're going to use 1*10-∞ as a number of incredibly small value. This makes the answer √2ΔX/(1*10^-∞) which would end up being as close to infinity as your could manage, so i guess that makes the answer "Nearly forever", but because you can't have a portion of forever, the answer is Forever.

B[u]LL

What say you?

Posted by Bryce on 2004-05-06 22:46:58