Question

The space shuttle fleet was designed with two booster stages. if the first stage provides a thrust of 53 kilo-newtons and the space shuttle has an acceleration of 18,000 miles per hour squared, what is the mass of the spacecraft in units of pounds-mass?

Answer 1

To solve this problem we will apply Newton's second law, which indicates that the force is equivalent to the product between mass and acceleration, so

`F = ma`

Here,

F= Force

m = Mass

a = Acceleration

Rearranging to find the mass we have,

`m = (F)/(a)`

The value of the acceleration is

`a = 18miles/hour^2 ((0.00012417m/s^2)/(1 miles/hour^2))`

`a = 0.002235m/s^2`

Replacing to find the mass,

`m = (53kN)/(0.002235m/s^2)`

`m = (53*10^(-3))/(0.002235)`

`m = 23.71kg`

Now in ponds this value is

`m = 23.71kg((2.205lb)/(1kg))`

`m=52.8 lb`

Therefore the mass of the spacecraft is 52.8lb