A couple of astronauts agree to rendezvous in space after hours. Their plan is to let gravity bring them together. One of them has a mass of 65 kg and the other a mass of 72 kg, and they start from rest 20.0 m apart. (a) Make a free-body diagram of each astronaut, and use it to find his or her initial acceleration. As a rough approximation, we can model the astronauts as uniform spheres. (b) If the astronauts’ acceleration remained constant, how many days would they have to wait before reaching each other? (Careful! They both have acceleration toward each other.) (c) Would their acceleration, in fact, remain constant? If not, would it increase or decrease? Why?
A couple of astronauts agree to rendezvous in space after hours. Their plan is to let gravity bring them together. One of them has a mass of 65 kg and the other a mass of 72 kg, and they start from rest 20.0 m apart. (a) Make a free-body diagram of each astronaut, and use it to find his or her initial acceleration. As a rough approximation, we can model the astronauts as uniform spheres. (b) If the astronauts’ acceleration remained constant, how many days would they have to wait before reaching each other? (Careful! They both have acceleration toward each other.) (c) Would their acceleration, in fact, remain constant? If not, would it increase or decrease? Why?
Related questions
Question
100%
A couple of astronauts agree to rendezvous
in space after hours. Their plan is to let gravity bring them together.
One of them has a mass of 65 kg and the other a mass of 72 kg,
and they start from rest 20.0 m apart. (a) Make a free-body diagram
of each astronaut, and use it to find his or her initial acceleration. As a
rough approximation, we can model the astronauts as uniform spheres.
(b) If the astronauts’ acceleration remained constant, how many days
would they have to wait before reaching each other? (Careful! They
both have acceleration toward each other.) (c) Would their acceleration,
in fact, remain constant? If not, would it increase or decrease? Why?
Expert Solution
This question has been solved!
Explore an expertly crafted, step-by-step solution for a thorough understanding of key concepts.
This is a popular solution!
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 3 steps