Problem 52654. Easy Sequences 13: Average Speed of Spaceship
A certain alien spaceship is capable of traveling at extremely high velocities and is able to change speed instantaneously. The ship travels from two points 's' km apart, at a speed of 'v' km/hr. After reaching its destination the spaceship immediately heads back to its starting point at the speed of 'v-1' km.hr. After reaching the starting point it again goes back at a speed of 'v-2'. This "back and forth' continues, reducing the ship's speed by 1 km/hr in each turn around.
Given an integer initial velocity, find the average speed of the spaceship througout its entire journey, until it finally stops. Please round-off your answer to the nearest integer.
NOTE: Use clasical physics only. Ignore any relativistic effects.
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ChrisR
on 5 Sep 2021
Nice set of problems, Ramon. I particularly like the red herring in this one's test suite.
Ramon Villamangca
on 8 Sep 2021
Thanks Chris... :)
Rafael S.T. Vieira
on 22 Nov 2022
Tip: This is not a classical-physic-only problem. As far as I know, the digamma function is not taught in high school.
Ramon Villamangca
on 19 Dec 2022
By definition classical physics means physics without modern relativity and quantum mechanics.
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