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Calculate speed of meteoroids given initial conditions

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Two meteoroids are heading for earth. Their speeds as they cross the moon's orbit are 2.0 km/s. The second misses the earth by 5000 km. What is its speed at its closest point?

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Solution Summary

Using conservation of energy we calculate the speed of meteoroids when they are at 5000 km from Earth using the given initial speed when they cross the Moon's orbit.

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Use conservation of energy. The potential energy, denoted as W(r) is:

W(r) = -G M m/r,

where M is the mass of the Earth, m is the mass of the ...

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