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Jack Bumblespeed, our fearless space walker, runs out of fuel in his power pack

ID: 2053933 • Letter: J

Question

Jack Bumblespeed, our fearless space walker, runs out of fuel in his power pack while drifting at 1.0 m/s away from the Space Shuttle. Jack, remembering what he learned in physics class, removes his 26.0 kg power pack and throws it away at 3.0 m/s relative to the Shuttle and in the direction away from the Shuttle. The mass of Jack plus space suit, minus power pack, is 105.0 kg. Calculate the new relative speed of Jack towards the Space Shuttle to see if he will catch up with the Shuttle. Take velocity away from the Shuttle to be minus.

I used the conservation of momentum and then calculated jack's relative speed to the shuttle and got -0.257. But it's wrong...

Explanation / Answer

Speed of jack wrt to shuttle initially is -1m/s
Speed of jack when he throws the power suit be v wrt to spacecraft is v
speed of power jacket wrt to spacecraft = -3 m/s
Applying conservation of momentum

(105+26) X -1 = 105 X v - 26 X 3
solving we hav get

v = -0.504 m/s ANSWER