variable drive

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

Yes, travel times, badly edited post, as usual...

Calculus - didn't do it, did do Physics*, hence problem. I'm tempted to study it but "yield not unto temptation" is burned into my subconscious.

I think the first year Calculus is going to be unavoidable on this one.
If the variation of acceleration with distance a(s) is a smooth function, you get a not too terrible equation for time to climb to height s.

dt^2 = (1/a(s)) d^2s

Integrate twice, plug in the desired distance and the radius of the planet as the limits and you're there. If you want a simple multiple of local gravity, then for a planet of radius r, t is going to be of the form t = k (s^4 - r^4), where k is a constant depending on the exact multiples you pick.