A 58-kg astronaut is in space, far from any objects that would exert a significa

Question

A 58-kg astronaut is in space, far from any objects that would exert a significant gravitational force on him. He would like to move toward his spaceship, but his jet pack is not functioning. He throws a 720-g socket wrench with a velocity of 5.0 m/s in a direction away from the ship. After 0.50 s, he throws a 800-g spanner in the same direction with a speed of 8.0 m/s. After another 9.90 s, he throws a mallet with a speed of 6.0 m/s in the same direction. The mallet has a mass of 1200 g. How fast is the astronaut moving after he throws the mallet?

Explanation / Answer

se conservation of momentum...before he starts throwing anything away, his momentum is zero so once he starts throwing things away, the momentum they carry in one direction will be matched by his momentum in the other direction since there are no forces acting on the objects or astronaut, they will all have the same velocity they acquired when he threw them since the total momentum of zero is conserved, we can write at the end of all his throwing away... momentum of wrench + momentum of spanner + momentum of mallet = momentum of astronaut numerically, this becomes: 0.720kg x 5m/s + 0.8kg x 8m/s + 1.20kg x 6m/s = 58 V where V is the velocity of the astronaut 17.20=58V V=0.29 m/s

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