One way to attack a satellite in Earth orbit is to launch a swarm of pellets in the same orbit as the satellite but in the opposite direction. Suppose a satellite in a circular orbit 600 km above Earth's surface collides with a pellet having mass 7.5 g. (a) What is the kinetic energy of the pellet in the reference frame of the satellite just before the collision? (b) What is the ratio of this kinetic energy to the kinetic energy of a 7.5 g bullet from a modern army rifle with a muzzle speed of 1200 m/s?

One way to attack a satellite in Earth orbit is to launch a swarm of pellets in the same orbit as the satellite but in the opposite direction. Suppose a satellite in a circular orbit 600 km above Earth's surface collides with a pellet having mass 7.5 g. (a) What is the kinetic energy of the pellet in the reference frame of the satellite just before the collision? (b) What is the ratio of this kinetic energy to the kinetic energy of a 7.5 g bullet from a modern army rifle with a muzzle speed of 1200 m/s?

University Physics Volume 3

17th Edition

ISBN:9781938168185

Author:William Moebs, Jeff Sanny

Publisher:William Moebs, Jeff Sanny

Chapter5: Relativity

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 88AP: A spacecraft starts from being at rest at the origin and accelerates at a constant rate g, as seen...

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