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,

$m = \frac{F}{a}$

The value of the acceleration is

$a = 18miles/hour^2 (\frac{0.00012417m/s^2}{1 miles/hour^2})$

$a = 0.002235m/s^2$

Replacing to find the mass,

$m = \frac{53kN}{0.002235m/s^2}$

$m = \frac{53*10^{-3}}{0.002235}$

$m = 23.71kg$

Now in ponds this value is

$m = 23.71kg(\frac{2.205lb}{1kg})$

$m=52.8 lb$

Therefore the mass of the spacecraft is 52.8lb