Question

Mars has a mass of 6.42x10^23 kilograms and a radius of 3397 kilometers. An astronaut standing on the surface of mars drops a hammer from a height of 1.55 meters. How long does it take the hammer to reach the ground?

Answer 1

Answer on Question # 70913, Physics / Othe

Question Mars has a mass of $6.42\cdot 10^{23}$ kilograms and a radius of 3397 kilometers. An astronaut standing on the surface of mars drops a hammer from a height of 1.55 meters. How long does it take the hammer to reach the ground?

Solution Let us find acceleration of free fall at Mars at its surface.

$F=G\frac{M_{m}m}{R^{2}}$

$g=G\frac{M_{m}}{R^{2}}=6.67\cdot 10^{-11}\frac{6.24\cdot 10^{23}}{(3397\cdot 10^{3})^{2}}\approx 3.8m/s^{2}$

Now we can find time of free fall from $s=1.55$ m:

$s=gt^{2}/2$

$t=\sqrt{\frac{2s}{g}}$