Meteoroid destruction calculation
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A spherical asteroid with a mass of 1.0 x 10^13kg and a diameter of 2k strikes the Earth with a speed of 25 km/s, a typical speed of an impacting asteroid. What is the kinetic energy of the asteroid at the moment of impact? Express your answer in terms of multiples of the energy released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan on August 6,1945.
(Hint: where M is the mass of the asteroid and V is its speed. Use metric units to calculate the energy in Joules (a metric unit) and then use the conversion.
1 kiloton of TNT releases 4.2 x 1012 Joules of energy and the energy released by the Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT).
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Solution Summary
Gives a solution to a specific numeric example of the destructive power of an impact relative to Hiroshima bomb energy.
Solution Preview
As KE = 1/2 M V^2 it presents a pretty straightforward calculation.
But we do have to adjust our units to give the J output (Joules ...
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