EDITOR'S NOTEAdapted from equations appearing in HPeJ article 010, here is a useful method to work out the speed for downhill coasting at a specified time after starting from rest.
First solve the following intermediates;
Complete by solving for speed (v);X = mass
Y = mass * g * [sine(angle) - Crr]
Z = CdA * air density * 0.5
v = sqrt(Y/Z) * tanh(sqrt(Y*Z)/X*time)
Example:
Inputs: time = 60 (seconds),mass = 102 (kg), g = 9.81 (m/s^2), angle = .05 (rad), Crr = 0.005 (n/n), air density = 1.05 (kg/m2),CdA = 0.5 (m2), X = 102 (calculated), Y = 45.01 (calculated), Z = 0.25 (calculated)Results: v = 12.66 m/s
Human Power eJournal