Weight, Thrust and Acceleration

The Summary Notes section, including worked examples can be accessed by clicking here.

1.         Find the missing values in the table.

2.    The engine of a space shuttle can produce a thrust of 600 000 N. The mass of the shuttle is 8 x 105 kg. Calculate the acceleration of the shuttle in space.
3.    What engine thrust must be produced by a rocket of mass 3 x 106 kg in order to produce an acceleration of 1·4 m/s2 in space.
4.    The maximum engine thrust of a spacecraft is 2·4 x 107 N and this produces an acceleration of 12 m/s2 in space. What is the mass of the spacecraft?
5.    An engine force of 160 kN is used to slow down a shuttle in space. If the mass of the shuttle is 120 000 kg what is its rate of deceleration?

6.    Use the three stages outlined in the example above to find the missing values in the following table. Assume that each mass is in the Earth’s gravitational field.

7.    A water rocket has a mass of 0·8 kg and is launched in a school playground with an initial upwards thrust of 12 N.

a) What is the weight of the water rocket in the playground?
(b) What is the initial acceleration of the rocket in the playground?
(c) If this water rocket were launched from the moon, what would be its initial acceleration?
(Remember to find the new weight first !)

8.    A rocket is launched from Earth with an initial acceleration of 2·5 m/s2. The mass of the rocket is 1 600 000 kg.


 

(a)       Calculate the unbalanced force acting on the rocket during its launch
(b)        What is the weight of the rocket?
(c)        Calculate the engine thrust of the rocket.
(d)        What engine thrust would be required to launch this rocket from the moon with the same acceleration?

9.         Calculate the acceleration of the following objects.

(a)        A model rocket of mass 30 kg  being launched from Earth with an engine thrust of 800 N.
(b)        A satellite in space whose mass is 1 800 kg and whose engine force is 4·68 kN.
(c)        A 100 000 kg shuttle travelling at 50 m/s in space.
(d)        A toy rocket of mass 1·5 kg whose engine stopped while the rocket was in mid air.
(e)        A spaceship of mass 4 x 107 kg lifting off from Saturn with an engine thrust of 9 x 108 N.
(f)        A rocket of mass 2·2 x 106 kg  being launched from Neptune with an engine thrust of 4·4 x 107 N.

10.  A space shuttle has a weight of 1·8 x 107 N on Earth. Its engines produce a thrust of 2·7 x 106 N during part of its journey through space.
       (You will need to refer to the data sheet on page 24 for parts of this question.)

(a)        Calculate the mass of the shuttle.
(b)        What is the acceleration of the shuttle in space while its engine thrust is 2·7 x 106 N?
(c) Could the shuttle have been launched from Earth with this engine thrust of 2·7 x106 N? Explain your answer.
(d)        The engine thrust was 2·7 x 107 N during the launch from Earth. What was the acceleration of the shuttle during its launch?
(e)         If a similar shuttle was launched from Venus with an engine thrust of 2·7 x 107 N, what would be the acceleration of this shuttle during lift off?      
(f) What engine thrust would be required in order to launch this shuttle from Jupiter with an acceleration of 5 m/s2?

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