Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 4 11B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Now and , soFor , set . Then and . For , integration givesConsequentlyThis solution of the rocket equation with stationary mass accretion covers increasing or decreasing rocket mass, as long as . For equal-rate rocket burning and accretion, in the case , the mass is constant and the linear equation instead givesIt is also the continuous equal-rate limit of the preceding expression when written in terms of .