Calculator (Beta)

Don't expect much yet as this is beta.

All the usual calculations you'll need to run will be available here. At the moment its hiding in the code and isn't interactive.

HAAS Shakespeare

Thorn þ is the engine energy output per second as thrust, measured in watts. It can be turned down like an engine but it is the engines max rating. The Shakespeare cannot accelerate faster than its maximum thorn when applied to its mass. HAAS Shakespeare actually has 16 Merlin engines.

The amount of power a fusion engine can throw out as kinetic energy in one second is its Thorn. From this we can add mass into the equation and find the velocity using the kinetic energy equation, providing we stick to the time frame of 1 second. Using the equation this way, assumes an initial velocity of zero, so the velocity that is derived is actually its change in velocity and in maths change is represented by delta. Also, velocity delta is known as acceleration. As my use of this is unorthodox, I'm going to refer to it here as velocity delta.

If you do the same calculation using these formulas, but of energy output over one and then seconds, the equation results in a lower acceleration on the two seconds. This can't be right as it means that for each second, the same energy is being used but for each following second the acceleration drops. This is nonsense. The problem is that equation wasn't designed for this, hence its using velocity and not acceleration. It's not accounting for the energy effectively stored as momentum, incrementally applied each second. At zero seconds there is no momentum so by applying the kinetic energy equation to only one second it can be used this way.

Classic rocket science uses force to identify the 'power' of a rocket. When your space ship uses fusion drives however, it is an unnecessary diversion, hence why I invented Thorn. In fact very little cares about force in space, energy is the currency. However, here for your reference is force.

Just remember that acceleration here is your velocity delta. You can reorder the equation for the classic way of calculating acceleration.
a=(v-u)/t

I guess the distance a starship travels is quite important.
You can also use the below if you don't know the final velocity:
s=ut+0.5att

If you have zero initial velocity and calculate for one second, you'll see that the momentum equation is just a variant of F=ma, Newton's second law of motion. It is a beautiful representation of the first law of motion where if you apply a force and stop, it continues to remain in that state of motion and so maintain its force. It will also maintain its energy equivalence.

If the engines stop, the ship will have this kinetic energy in its momentum relative to when the engines were started. Unsurprisingly it's the same as kinetic energy calculated from the velocity.

It will take this much energy to apply said force over said distance. More of a theoretical cross check at this point.

So the kinetic energy matches the work calculation but is somehow greater than the energy used to create it. This is relativity in action with a shifting frame of reference.

This is the amount of energy being thrown out per second all added up.

This is the amount of energy balancing the KE from one second frames (þ) and the KE of the total.

How long it would take to get to the Kuiper Belt from Neptune at 1g in days.