Question

An astronaut on a small planet wishes to measure the local value of g by timing pulses traveling down a wire which has a large object suspended from it. Assume a wire of mass 4.00 g is 1.60 m long and has a 3.00-kg object suspended from it. A pulse requires 65.6 ms to traverse the length of the wire. Calculate gplanet from these data. (You may neglect the mass of the wire when calculating the tension in it.)

Answer 1

Answer:

The gplanet is 0.193 m/s^2

Explanation:

The speed of the pulse is:

$v=\frac{lengthofthewipe}{traveltime} =\frac{1.6}{0.0656} =15.24m/s$

$v=\sqrt{\frac{MgL}{m} } \\v^{2} =\frac{MgL}{m} \\g=\frac{mv^{2} }{ML}$

where

m=mass of the wire=4 g= 4x10^-3 kg

M=mass of the object= 3 kg

Replacing values:

$g=\frac{4x10^{-3}*15.24^{2} }{3*1.6} =0.193 m/s^{2}$