Mass driver constrained by a limited amount of onboard spacecraft power. Thrust and momentum from exhaust, per unit mass expelled, scales up linearly with its velocity (momentum = mv), yet kinetic energy and energy input requirements scale up faster with velocity squared (kinetic energy = mv). Too low exhaust velocity would excessively increase propellant mass needed under the rocket equation, with too high a fraction of energy going into accelerating propellant not used yet. Higher exhaust velocity has both benefit and tradeoff, increasing propellant usage efficiency (more momentum per unit mass of propellant expelled) but decreasing thrust and the current rate of
Chirp mass terms of other common mass parameters: where formula_7 is the total mass of the system, formula_8 is the reduced mass of the system, formula_9 is the mass ratio, and formula_10 is the symmetric mass ratio. In general relativity, the phase evolution of a binary orbit can be computed using a post-Newtonian expansion, a perturbative expansion in powers of the orbital velocity formula_11. The first order gravitational wave frequency, formula_12, evolution is described by the differential equation where formula_14 and formula_15 are the speed of light and Newton's gravitational constant, respectively. Integrating equation () with respect to time gives: where C