One theory about the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 is that o
ID: 1346083 • Letter: O
Question
One theory about the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 is that one of its wings had been damaged on lifto by a chunk of foam insulation that fell o of one of its external fuel tanks. The New York Times reported on June 5, 2003, that NASA engineers had recreated the impact to see if it would damage a mock-up of the shuttle’s wing. “Before last week’s test, many engineers at NASA said they thought lightweight foam could not harm the seemingly tough composite panels, and privately predicted that the foam would bounce o harmlessly, like a Nerf ball.” In fact, the 1.7-pound piece of foam, moving at 531 miles per hour, did serious damage. A member of the board investigating the disaster said this demonstrated that “people’s intuitive sense of physics is sometimes way o.” (a) Compute the kinetic energy of the foam, and (b) compare with the energy of a 170-pound boulder moving at 5.3 miles per hour (the speed it would have if you dropped it from about kneelevel). (c) The boulder is a hundred times more massive, but its speed is a hundred times smaller, so what’s counterintuitive about your results?
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One theory about the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 is that o
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