Question

An astronaut finds he has drifted a few meters away from the international space station. To get back, he throws a wrench with a velocity of -20 m/s. How fast will he move toward the space station?

a) 0.4 m/s
b) 0.5 m/s
c) 0.6 m/s
d) 0.7 m/s

Answer 1

The astronaut will move back towards the station at a slower speed due to conservation of momentum, though without the mass of the wrench and astronaut, the exact speed cannot be determined. Additionally, the claim of sending a canister at 1.20c relative to Earth is unreasonable as it violates the laws of special relativity.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the velocity at which the astronaut will move toward the space station after throwing the wrench, we must use the conservation of momentum. Since the astronaut and the wrench are initially at rest, their combined momentum is zero. When the astronaut throws the wrench with a given velocity, the astronaut will move in the opposite direction with a velocity that ensures that the total momentum remains zero. The missing piece of information for a precise calculation is the mass of the wrench and the mass of the astronaut. If we assume that the wrench's mass is much less than the mass of the astronaut, the astronaut would move much more slowly than the wrench.

In the hypothetical scenario mentioned for comparison, the relativistic addition of velocities would be used to determine the velocity of a canister relative to a spaceship. However, the claim that a canister could be sent toward Earth at a speed of 1.20c relative to Earth violates the laws of physics, specifically the theory of special relativity, as the speed of light (c) is the maximum speed at which any object with mass can travel.