A rocket moving uniformly and rectilinearly with speed v in a coordinate system associated with “fixed” stars has two engines designed to operate during time intervals t1 and t2. The engines impart constant accelerations a1 to the rocket, and a1 > a2. They can only be turned on sequentially. The rocket's speed can be reduced to zero in any order in which the engines are turned on after they have been fully worked out. What order of turning on the engines should be chosen so that the distance traveled by the rocket by the time the engines stop working is minimal?
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