High School

Compare the kinetic energy of a 20,500 kg truck moving at 145 km/h with that of an 83.5 kg astronaut in orbit moving at 27,000 km/h.

\[ KE_{\text{truck}} \]
\[ KE_{\text{astronaut}} \]

Answer :

The kinetic energy of the truck is about 0.0007% of the kinetic energy of the astronaut in orbit.

How to compare the kinetic energy of two objects with different masses and velocities?

To compare the kinetic energy of the truck and the astronaut, we can use the formula for kinetic energy:

[tex]KE = 1/2 * m * v^2[/tex]

where KE is the kinetic energy, m is the mass, and v is the velocity.

For the truck, the mass is 20,500 kg and the velocity is 145 km/h = 40.28 m/s (we need to convert km/h to m/s to use the formula). So, the kinetic energy of the truck is:

[tex]KEtruck = 1/2 * 20,500 kg * (40.28 m/s)^2 = 16,553,444 J[/tex]

For the astronaut, the mass is 83.5 kg and the velocity is 27,000 km/h = 7,500 m/s. So, the kinetic energy of the astronaut is:

[tex]KEastronaut = 1/2 * 83.5 kg * (7,500 m/s)^2 = 23,587,812,500 J[/tex]

Therefore, the kinetic energy of the astronaut in orbit is much greater than that of the truck. The ratio of their kinetic energies is:

[tex]KEtruck/KEastronaut = 16,553,444 J / 23,587,812,500 J = 7.01 *10^-4[/tex]

This means that the kinetic energy of the truck is about 0.0007% of the kinetic energy of the astronaut in orbit.

Learn more about Kinetic energy

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