Question
Can someone please help me with this problem. There are nosolutions to it at the moment. Thanks! An astronaut in his space suit and with propulsion unit (emptyof its gas propellant) strapped to his back has a mass of 140kg.During a space walk, the unit, which has been completely filledwith propellant gas, ejects some gas with a velocity of +32m/s. Asa result, the astronaut recoils with velocity of -0.35. After thegas is ejected, the mass of the astronaut(now wearing partiallyempty propulsion unit) is 165kg. what percentage of the gaspropellant in the completely filled propulsion unit wasdepleted? Can someone please help me with this problem. There are nosolutions to it at the moment. Thanks! An astronaut in his space suit and with propulsion unit (emptyof its gas propellant) strapped to his back has a mass of 140kg.During a space walk, the unit, which has been completely filledwith propellant gas, ejects some gas with a velocity of +32m/s. Asa result, the astronaut recoils with velocity of -0.35. After thegas is ejected, the mass of the astronaut(now wearing partiallyempty propulsion unit) is 165kg. what percentage of the gaspropellant in the completely filled propulsion unit wasdepleted?
Explanation / Answer
M = mass of gas left = 165 -140 = 25 kg 165 * V = m v momentum of astronaut and remaining gas = mass of gas ejected m = 165 * .35 / 32 = 1.80 kg m / (M + m) = 1.8 / (1.8 + 25) = .067 = 6.7%