- #1
intriqet
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One seemingly easy problem. Please help! due soon!
An astronaut of mass 77.0 kg is taking a space walk to work on the International Space Station. Because of a malfunction with the booster rockets on his spacesuit, he finds himself drifting away from the station with a constant speed of 0.660 m/s. With the booster rockets no longer working, the only way for him to return to the station is to throw the 9.65 kg wrench he is holding.
In which direction should he throw the wrench?
1
away from the station
toward the station
He throws the wrench with speed 14.82 m/s with respect to himself.
After he throws the wrench, how fast is the astronaut drifting toward the space station?
2
What is the speed of the wrench with respect to the space station?
3
Your response differs from the correct answer by orders of magnitude.
m1v1 = m2v2
The astronaut obviously has to throw the wrench away from the station to be propelled back towards the station. I was also able to find number 2 using the formula above where m1 = mass of the astronaut + mass of the wrench. I am stuck on part 3. My intuition tells me that all I need to do to get this answer is to add 14.82 to the initial velocity of the astronaut but WebAssign will not take the answer. Please help. This is due in an hour and this is the only part of this homework that I am missing
Homework Statement
An astronaut of mass 77.0 kg is taking a space walk to work on the International Space Station. Because of a malfunction with the booster rockets on his spacesuit, he finds himself drifting away from the station with a constant speed of 0.660 m/s. With the booster rockets no longer working, the only way for him to return to the station is to throw the 9.65 kg wrench he is holding.
In which direction should he throw the wrench?
1
away from the station
toward the station
He throws the wrench with speed 14.82 m/s with respect to himself.
After he throws the wrench, how fast is the astronaut drifting toward the space station?
2
What is the speed of the wrench with respect to the space station?
3
Your response differs from the correct answer by orders of magnitude.
Homework Equations
m1v1 = m2v2
The Attempt at a Solution
The astronaut obviously has to throw the wrench away from the station to be propelled back towards the station. I was also able to find number 2 using the formula above where m1 = mass of the astronaut + mass of the wrench. I am stuck on part 3. My intuition tells me that all I need to do to get this answer is to add 14.82 to the initial velocity of the astronaut but WebAssign will not take the answer. Please help. This is due in an hour and this is the only part of this homework that I am missing