Question

An astronaut with a mass of `95 kg` is floating in space. If the astronaut throws an object with a mass of `9 kg` at a speed of `7/4 m/s`, how much will his speed change by?

Answer 1

0.17 m/s

Explanation:

Using conservation of momentum we know `p_i = p_f` where i means initial and f, final. If we use the subscript a for the astronaut and o for the object we get:

`m_a . Deltav_a = m_o . Deltav_o`

This means that we can rearrange for `v_a` as the subject.