Question

An astronaut is taking a space walk near the shuttle when her safety tether breaks. The astronaut takes a tool from her tool belt and throws it away from the shuttle to get back to the shuttle.

If the astronaut throws the tool with a force of 16.0 N, what is the magnitude of the acceleration a of the astronaut during the throw? Assume that the total mass of the astronaut after she throws the tool is 80.0 kg.
Answer is in meters per second squared.

Answer 1

Concepts and reason

The main concept required to solve the given question is Newton’s second law of motion.

Initially, Apply the Newton’s second law and finally, calculate the acceleration of the astronaut during the throw.

Fundamentals

The Newton’s second law states that the net force on an object is the product of mass of the object and acceleration of the object. The equation of the Newton’s second law is,

$\sum {\vec F = m\vec a}$

Here, $\sum {\vec F}$ is the net force on the object, $m$ is mass of the object, and $\vec a$ is the acceleration of the object.

The equilibrium condition for the force gives,

$\Sigma F = 0$

Here, $F$ is the force.

According, to the equilibrium condition for the force, the net force on the astronaut while he throws the tool with a force $F$ is,

$F = ma$

Here, $m$ is the mass of astronaut and $a$ is the acceleration of the astronaut.

Rearrange the equation $F = ma$ for acceleration a.

$a = \frac{F}{m}$

Substitute $80.0{\rm{ kg}}$ for $m$ and $16.0{\rm{ N}}$ for $F$ in the above equation.

$\begin{array}{c}\\a = \frac{{16.0{\rm{ N}}}}{{80.0{\rm{ kg}}}}\\\\ = 0.2{\rm{ m / }}{{\rm{s}}^2}\\\end{array}$

Ans:

The acceleration of the astronaut during the throw is $0.20{\rm{ m / }}{{\rm{s}}^2}$ .