Compare the kinetic energy of a 20,000-kg truck moving at 110 km/h with that of an 80.0-kg astronaut in orbit moving at 27,500 km/h.
Solution:
The translational kinetic energy of an object of mass m moving at speed v is KE=21mv2.
The Kinetic Energy of the Truck
For the truck, we are given the following:
mv=20000 kg=110 hrkm×1 km1000 m×3600 s1 hr=30.5556 m/s
Substitute these values to compute for the kinetic energy of the truck.
KEtKEtKEtKEt=21mv2=21(20000 kg)(30.5556 m/s)2=9336446.9136 J=9.34×106 J
The Kinetic Energy of the Astronaut
For the astronaut, we have the following given values
mv=80 kg=27500 hrkm×1 km1000 m×3600 s1 hr=7638.8889 m/s
The kinetic energy of the astronaut is calculated as
KEaKEaKEaKEa=21mv2=21(80 kg)(7638.8889 m/s)2=2334104945.0617 J=2.33×109 J
Comparing the Kinetic Energies of the truck and the astronaut
KEtKEaKEtKEaKEa=9336446.9136 J2334104945.0617 J=250=250 KEt (Answer)
The kinetic energy of the astronaut is 250 times larger than the kinetic energy of the truck.
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