About 50,000 years ago, a meteor crashed into the earth near present-day Flagstaff, Arizona. Measurements from 2005 estimate that this meteor had a mass of about 1.4 * 108 kg (around 150,000 tons) and hit the ground at a speed of 12 km/s. (a) How much kinetic energy did this meteor deliver to the ground? (b) How does this energy compare to the energy released by a 1.0 megaton nuclear bomb? (A megaton bomb releases the same amount of energy as a million tons of TNT, and 1.0 ton of TNT releases 4.184 * 109 J of energy.)
About 50,000 years ago, a meteor crashed into the earth near present-day Flagstaff, Arizona. Measurements from 2005 estimate that this meteor had a mass of about 1.4 * 108 kg (around 150,000 tons) and hit the ground at a speed of 12 km/s. (a) How much kinetic energy did this meteor deliver to the ground? (b) How does this energy compare to the energy released by a 1.0 megaton nuclear bomb? (A megaton bomb releases the same amount of energy as a million tons of TNT, and 1.0 ton of TNT releases 4.184 * 109 J of energy.)
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About 50,000 years ago, a meteor crashed into
the earth near present-day Flagstaff, Arizona. Measurements from 2005
estimate that this meteor had a mass of about 1.4 * 108 kg (around
150,000 tons) and hit the ground at a speed of 12 km/s. (a) How much
kinetic energy did this meteor deliver to the ground? (b) How does this
energy compare to the energy released by a 1.0 megaton nuclear bomb?
(A megaton bomb releases the same amount of energy as a million tons
of TNT, and 1.0 ton of TNT releases 4.184 * 109 J of energy.)
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