Airbus A380 Take-off Distance

In the last video,
we figured out

that given a takeoff velocity
of 280 kilometers per hour--

and if we have a positive
value for any of these vectors,

we assume it's in the forward
direction for the runway--

given this takeoff velocity,
and a constant acceleration of 1

meter per second per second,
or 1 meter per second squared,

we figured out that it
would take an Airbus

A380 about 78
seconds to take off.

What I want to figure
out in this video

is, given all of these
numbers, how long of a runaway

does it need, which is a very
important question if you want

to build a runway that
can at least allow

Airbus A380s to take off.

And you probably want it to
be a little bit longer than

that just in case it takes a
little bit longer than expected

to take off.

But what is the minimum
length of the runway

given these numbers?

So we want to figure
out the displacement,

or how far does
this plane travel

as it is accelerating at
1 meter per second squared

to 280 kilometers per
hour, or to 78-- or where

did I write it
over here-- to 78.

I converted it right over here.

As it accelerates to
78 meters per second,

how much land does
this thing cover?

So let's call this,
the displacement

is going to be equal
to-- So displacement

is equal to-- You could view
it as velocity times time.

But the velocity
here is changing.

If we just had a constant
velocity for this entire time,

we could just multiply
that times however

long it's traveling, and it
would give us the displacement.

But here our
velocity is changing.

But lucky for us,
we learned-- and I

encourage you to watch the video
on why distance, or actually

the video on average velocity
for constant acceleration--

but if you have
constant acceleration,

and that is what we are
assuming in this example--

so if you assume that your
acceleration is constant,

then you can come
up with something

called an average velocity.

And the average velocity, if
your acceleration is constant,

if and only if your
acceleration is constant, then

your average velocity
will be the average

of your final velocity
and your initial velocity.

And so in this situation,
what is our average velocity?

Well, our average
velocity-- let's

do it in meters per
second-- is going

to be our final velocity,
which is-- let me calculate it

down here.

So our average velocity
in this example

is going to be our
final velocity, which

is 78 meters per second,
plus our initial velocity.

Well, what's our
initial velocity?

We're assuming we're
starting at a standstill.

Plus 0, all of that over 2.

So our average velocity in this
situation, 78 divided by 2,

is 39 meters per second.

And the value of an average
velocity in this situation--

actually, average velocity
in any situation--

but in this situation, we
can calculate it this way.

But the value of
an average velocity

is we can figure
out our displacement

by multiplying our average
velocity times the time that

goes by, times the
change in time.

So we know the change
in time is 78 seconds.

We know our average
velocity here

is 39 meters per second,
just the average of 0 and 78,

39 meters per second.

Another way to think
about it, if you want

think about the
distance traveled,

this plane is
constantly accelerating.

So let me draw a
little graph here.

This plane's velocity time graph
would look something like this.

So if this is time and this
is velocity right over here,

this plane has a
constant acceleration

starting with 0 velocity.

It has a constant acceleration.

This slope right here is
constant acceleration.

It should actually
be a slope of 1,

given the numbers
in this example.

And the distance traveled
is the distance that

is the area under this
curve up to 78 seconds,

because that's how long it
takes for it to take off.

So the distance traveled is
this area right over here, which

we cover in another video, or
we give you the intuition of why

that works and why distance is
area under a velocity timeline.

But what an average velocity
is, is some velocity,

and in this case, it's exactly
right in between our final

and our initial
velocities, that if you

take that average velocity
for the same amount of time,

you would get the exact
same area under the curve,

or you would get the
exact same distance.

So our average
velocity is 39 meters

per second times 78 seconds.

And let's just get our
calculator out for this.

We have 39 times
78 gives us 3,042.

So this gives us 3,042.

And then meters per second
times second just leaves us

with meters.

So you need a runway
of over 3,000 meters

for one of these
suckers to take off,

or over 3 kilometers, which is
like about 1.8 or 1.9 miles,

just for this guy
to take off, which

I think is pretty fascinating.