Unfortunate astronaut loses his grip during a spacewalk and finds himself floati
ID: 1553006 • Letter: U
Question
Unfortunate astronaut loses his grip during a spacewalk and finds himself floating away from the space station, carrying only a rope and a bag of tools. First he tries to throw a rope to his fellow astronaut, but the rope is too short. In a last ditch effort, the astronaut throws his bag of tools in the direction of his motion (away from the space station). The astronaut has a mass of 102 kg and the bag of tools has a mass of 19.0 kg. If the astronaut is moving away from the space station at 2.10 m/s initially, what is the minimum final speed of the bag of tools (with respect to the space station) that will keep the astronaut from drifting away forever?Explanation / Answer
Use conservation of momentum to solve this problem
m1*u1 + m2*u2 = m1*V1 + m2*V2
m1 = mass of astronaut = 102 Kg
m2 = mass of tool bag = 19 Kg
u1 = u2 = 2.10 m/s before the astronaut throw the tool bag.
In order to keep the astronaut from drifting away forever, his velocity V1 must be 0 after he throw the tool bag away. So,
102 * 2.10 + 19 * 2.10 = 0 + 19 * V2
V2 = 254.1/19
= 13.36 m/s.
13.36 m/s the minimum final speed of the bag of tools (with respect to the space station) that will keep the astronaut from drifting away forever
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