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Chapter 7: Q23Q (page 170)

How can a rocket change direction when it is far out in space and essentially in a vacuum?

Short Answer

Expert verified

When a rocket wants to change its direction, it ejects some gas opposite to the desired direction.

Step by step solution

01

Determine the fundamental of a rocket

A rocket changes directions using Newton’s third law

02

Explain the use of gas to move in a specific direction

In free space, the rocket ejects gas in the backward direction, which pushes it forward. The force exerted by the ejected gases has an equal reaction in the opposite direction as per Newton’s third law.

Thus, when the rocket wants to change its direction, it ejects some gas opposite to the desired direction.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

At a hydroelectric power plant, water is directed at high speed against turbine blades on an axle that turns an electric generator. For maximum power generation, should the turbine blades be designed so that the water is brought to a dead stop, or so that the water rebounds?

A 28-g bullet strikes and becomes embedded in a 1.35-kg block of wood placed on a horizontal surface just in front of the gun. If the coefficient of kinetic friction between the block and the surface is 0.28, and the impact drives the block a distance of 8.5 m before it comes to rest, what was the muzzle speed of the bullet?

Billiard balls A and B, of equal mass, move at right angles and meet at the origin of an xy coordinate system as shown in Fig. 7–36. Initially ball A is moving along the y axis at \({\bf{ + 2}}{\bf{.0}}\;{\bf{m/s}}\), and ball B is moving to the right along the x axis with speed \({\bf{ + 3}}{\bf{.7}}\;{\bf{m/s}}\).After the collision (assumed elastic), ball B is moving along the positive y axis (Fig. 7–36) with velocity What is the final direction of ball A, and what are the speeds of the two balls?

FIGURE 7-36

Problem 46. (Ball A after the Collison is not shown)

When a person jumps from a tree to the ground, what happens to the momentum of the person upon striking the ground?

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(a) What is the impulse given to the nail?

(b) What is the average force acting on the nail?
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