Another cool way to change the length of the day is to crash a giant asteriod in

Question

Another cool way to change the length of the day is to crash a giant asteriod into the earth. Take the asteroid's mass to be 2.0 x 10^17 kg, and its impact speed to be 15 km/s. For the impact geometry shown on the right (rotation axis is perpendicular to the paprer) and the numbers for the earth for problem 1,

A) find the angular momentum of the asteroid before impact, calculated about the earth's center.

B) If the asteroid embeds itself into the earth near the surface, and no mass inlost, find the fractional change in the length of the earth's day, (change in period)/(period before impact).

Explanation / Answer

the angular momentum initially about the center of the earth = mvr = 2*10^17*v * radius of earth

v = 15* 1000 m/s

radius of earth = 6400 Km

= angular momentum = 2*10^17 * 15*10^3* 6400*10^3 = 1.92*10^28

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