An astronaut with a mass of #90 kg# is floating in space. If the astronaut throws a #20 kg# object at a speed of #5 m/s#, how much will his speed change by?

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1 Answer
Gió
May 11, 2016

I found: #v=-1.11m/s# (in the opposite direction)

Explanation:

We can use conservation of momentum where momentum is #p=mv# (in one direction only) and the momentum (astronaut mass M+object mass m) before will be equal the momentum after.
We can write:
#(M+m)v=Mv+m"u#
#(90+20)*0=90*v+20*5#
#0=90v+100#
so #v=-100/90=-1.11m/s# (in the opposite direction)

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