How long would it take?

[grayhawk]

I'm doing an unscientific poll.  I want to ask the fine people of U-E a question, and am hoping you can answer without doing any fancy cipherin' or googling.  If you know the actual answer, please refrain as I don't want anyone's answer affected by others.  For those that don't know, please answer without peeking at anyone else's.  The purposes is to find out the average person's WAG (wild ass guess).

 

The fastest spacecraft that humans have ever sent into space reached a velocity of approximately 150,000 mph.  At this rate of speed, about how long, in years, would it take for this spacecraft to reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star to earth other than the sun?  Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years from earth.

 

Please give your best guess.  Thanks.

 

 

[Magic]

WHAT???? Do you get out much? My answer is: Who the heck cares??????

[Texas Manny]

One light year is approximately 6 trillion miles in distance. 6 trillion x 4.2 light years away = 25.2 trillion miles. Divide that by 150,000 miles = 168,000,000 hours. Then divide by 24 hours/day = 7 million days, which equals, 19,178

years. That's approximate.

 

150,000 is 0.000002499

percent of 6 trillion, so you can see it is very slow.

 

We just got done doing this in my college Astronomy class. As you can see, we need to come up with a propulsion system better than 150K.

 

It is estimated that with a nuclear propulsion system that we could obtain about 5% of the speed of light, and they say that the star could be reached in about 90 years. The problem is there is no place to deal with the nuclear waste created.

[grayhawk]

 

 

Can you put that in spoiler tags?  Putting the actual answer down pretty much kills the purpose of the thread.

[grayhawk]

WHAT???? Do you get out much? My answer is: Who the heck cares??????

 

I'm a closet astronomy geek - sue me.

[Texas Manny]

 

 

 

Can you put that in spoiler tags?  Putting the actual answer down pretty much kills the purpose of the thread.

 

I don't know how to do that.

[grayhawk]

Put [s poiler] at the beginning and [/s poiler] at the end.  Of course, don't put a space in the word spoiler.

[Jocko]

I have no idea, and not gonna do the math. I know that light travels 186, 000 fps. There are 5280 ft in a mile.

[maven]

 

WHAT???? Do you get out much? My answer is: Who the heck cares??????

 

I'm a closet astronomy geek - sue me.

 

 

You're not just that; you're involving us!

[BRUMP]

with all due respect Steve, this is the place I come to get away from math!!!!!

[grayhawk]

Well, this was a fail. I didn't want anyone to try to calculate anything. I just wanted to see what people would think off the cuff.

[basejester]

350 years.

[FlaUmp22]

7 and a half centuries

[JaxRolo]

1 million years

[Replacematt]

18769 years.

[iankelleyumpire]

A LONG TIME. 

[afaber12]

Do you want our guesses to include the mucking about with slingshot maneuvers within our solar system, and accelerating up to that speed?

 

Do you want our guesses to exclude the time it took to get up to that speed, in which case also exclude the distance between Earth and an appropriate gas giant? If so, should we assume optimal positioning of Earth's and said gas giant's orbit in relation to Proxima Centauri?

 

You're not the only astro-nerd here! You can beam me up any day!

[maven]

Well, this was a fail. I didn't want anyone to try to calculate anything. I just wanted to see what people would think off the cuff.

 

I think it's a conspiracy, and there isn't really a rocket carrying people out of the solar system.

 

And there's no such thing as gravity. The earth sucks.

[Replacematt]

Do you want our guesses to include the mucking about with slingshot maneuvers within our solar system, and accelerating up to that speed?

 

Do you want our guesses to exclude the time it took to get up to that speed, in which case also exclude the distance between Earth and an appropriate gas giant? If so, should we assume optimal positioning of Earth's and said gas giant's orbit in relation to Proxima Centauri?

 

You're not the only astro-nerd here! You can beam me up any day!

At least we have a space program.

[maven]

 

Do you want our guesses to include the mucking about with slingshot maneuvers within our solar system, and accelerating up to that speed?

 

Do you want our guesses to exclude the time it took to get up to that speed, in which case also exclude the distance between Earth and an appropriate gas giant? If so, should we assume optimal positioning of Earth's and said gas giant's orbit in relation to Proxima Centauri?

 

You're not the only astro-nerd here! You can beam me up any day!

At least we have a space program.

 

[basejester]

Do you want our guesses to include the mucking about with slingshot maneuvers within our solar system, and accelerating up to that speed?

 

Do you want our guesses to exclude the time it took to get up to that speed, in which case also exclude the distance between Earth and an appropriate gas giant? If so, should we assume optimal positioning of Earth's and said gas giant's orbit in relation to Proxima Centauri?

 

I'd be shocked if including the acceleration time or the slingshot maneuver made a significant difference.

[grayhawk]

 

 

WHAT???? Do you get out much? My answer is: Who the heck cares??????

 

I'm a closet astronomy geek - sue me.

 

 

You're not just that; you're involving us!

 

 

Well, you've replied more than anyone in this thread, so I think you WANT to be involved!  Has anyone ever seen Maven and Stephen Hawking in the same room?

[grayhawk]

 

Do you want our guesses to include the mucking about with slingshot maneuvers within our solar system, and accelerating up to that speed?

 

Do you want our guesses to exclude the time it took to get up to that speed, in which case also exclude the distance between Earth and an appropriate gas giant? If so, should we assume optimal positioning of Earth's and said gas giant's orbit in relation to Proxima Centauri?

 

I'd be shocked if including the acceleration time or the slingshot maneuver made a significant difference.

 

 

It wouldn't - afaber is just showing his inner geekdom.

[ricka56]

Those who aspire to be king should know the answer to that question.

[Replacematt]

 

 

Do you want our guesses to include the mucking about with slingshot maneuvers within our solar system, and accelerating up to that speed?

 

Do you want our guesses to exclude the time it took to get up to that speed, in which case also exclude the distance between Earth and an appropriate gas giant? If so, should we assume optimal positioning of Earth's and said gas giant's orbit in relation to Proxima Centauri?

 

You're not the only astro-nerd here! You can beam me up any day!

At least we have a space program.

 

 

 

It would have been better if my mobile had emoticons.