formulas i should know for space travel career.

[cameron marical]

hey, i want to be an aeronauticall engineer, and im just wondering if any one would be nice enough to type down any formulas i should know to help me out. i know theyll teach me it then, but i dont want to wait, im curios and i want to play with these formulas once i learn them. get a head start too. when i say formulas i should know, i mean things like newtons f=ma and equations showing how to, say, determine how much fuel would be needed to accelerate to x amount of speed. please, and thanks. should i have posted this on the engineering thing or the astronomy?

[Baby Astronaut]

Work is force x distance (fd)

 

Pressure is force divided by area (f/a)

 

Speed is distance divided by time (d/t)

[D H]

Just a quick note before I go: It is much, much more important to understand concepts and to understand how equations are derived than to memorize random equations. Autistic savants are great at memorizing things but can't generalize because they don't understand what's in their heads. Geniuses can get by with very little memorization because they can derive things on the fly.

[Bignose]

Just crack open a university-level calculus-based physics text, assuming you've had the calculus (if not, start there). I guarantee that no one wants someone who can just memorize the equations -- the best people know the equations inside and out. How to derive them, what all the terms mean, all the assumptions that went into them, etc.

 

The best professor I ever had never brought any notes to class. He just asked a person in the front row what was the last line or two of what we did last time, and he just went from there. He re-derived the day's lecture every time -- really all because he knew the fundamentals and knew where we wanted to go with the analysis.

 

So, on that note, I'd just study the fundamentals like physics, like calculus, and know that inside and out. No one here can tell you an equation for "how much fuel it takes to accelerate to x" anyway, because there are way too many varibles in such an equation. What kind of fuel? What kind of propulsion system? What is the mass of the vehicle? What is the efficiency of the engine? I know that there are more, but these 4 instantly popped into my head.

 

edited to add: D H and I wrote pretty much the same thing here (he must have been posting while I was writing) -- and if it wasn't obvious, I couldn't agree more. Really and truly, as simple as it sounds, everything comes back to conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. Using that to solve the problem isn't always going to be easy, but that is all engineering really is: the bookkeepers of nature. Conservation of mass, momentum, and energy.

[Xittenn]

Front End???

[mrburns2012]

You'll pretty much find any formula you might need here: http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/

 

To emphasize what has been said numerous times before, the difficult part isn't the memorization. It's knowing when to use them.

[CaptainPanic]

Guys, the OP does not seem to suggest memorizing formulas.

 

I think for space flight, broadly speaking, you have different types of equations. I'll list some (not all):

1. Ballistics: Given the fact that your rocket produces F Newtons of force (thrust), where does it go? There is gravity from one, two or three bodies (earth, moon, sun) or even more. Calculations are in 3D (probably polar coordinates).

2. Engine calculations. Chemical reactions create pressure in the nozzle, which is (through nozzle design) turned into the maximum thrust. Different possible fuels can be used (liquid, solid and hybrid).

3. Possibly you can also study aerodynamics, which are especially important if you ever plan to return to earth.

4. Control systems. Measurements in the space craft lead to (computerized) decisions to correct something. This needs to be designed. Personally, I hate the math of the control systems. (For me it was mostly Laplace transforms, but I'm not sure how similar control systems in rockets and other chemical factories are).

 

The links I provided are meant only to give more keywords. They contain little information... but if you manage to understand all of Wikipedia's links that you find on those pages, then you're going to be just fine

 

Please note that you should not be afraid of the things you will encounter when studying this. People can dedicate years and years to every individual topic.

[D H]

Guys, the OP does not seem to suggest memorizing formulas.

The title of the thread ("formulas I should know") and the opening sentence of the OP ("hey, i want to be an aeronauticall engineer, and im just wondering if any one would be nice enough to type down any formulas i should know to help me out.") That is exactly why Bignose and I tried to steer him away from this idea.

 

Cameron, read this page "What is Aerospace Engineering". Some highlights:

Who are Aerospace Engineers?

Aerospace Engineers are involved in all aspects of aeronautics (working with aircraft) and astronautics (working with spacecraft). They conduct research, and design and develop vehicles and systems for atmospheric and space environments. These engineers often specialize in one of many areas such as aerodynamics, propulsion, flight mechanics, orbital mechanics, fluids, structures, guidance & control, and computation.

That final sentence lists several specialties within aerospace engineering. It is a very broad list, and it is not complete (navigation and rendezvous aren't on the list, for example). There is no way one person can be an expert in every single aspect of aerospace engineering.

 

More from the UT web page :

Recommended High School Preparation Courses

The UT Aerospace Engineering Department likes to see completion of high school courses in the following subjects:

• Mathematics courses including:
  • Algebra
    
    
  • Geometry
    
    
  • Trigonometry
    
    
  • Mathematics Analysis
    
    
  • Calculus
  [*]Computer Science
  [*]Natural Science courses including:
  • Biology
    
    
  • Chemistry
    
    
  • Physics
  [*]
  English
  [*]History
  [*]Foreign Language

Note that I highlighted English. I not only am an aerospace engineer (my specialties: orbital mechanics, guidance, navigation, rendezvous), I hire them -- and I don't hire them if they do not possess good communication skills, written and verbal.

[timo]

Why history?

[Shadow]

And I'm sort of surprised at biology as well...I can understand if you're the guy monitoring the astronauts life signs, but as an engineer, I can't see how biology would come in useful...?

[cameron marical]

wow, thats really cool. d h, your an aerospace engineer. sweet. is there such thing as a atronautical engineer, or something along those lines. i thought aerospace because i want to deal with space craft, not so much of normal airplanes, i thought thats what aerospace engineers do, if so, than thats defiantely what i want to do. i know you have to know aerodynamics and stuff to get to space, but id prefer to do more on the spacecraft {every part, like engines, design, etc...} side of it.

[Externet]

All of them !