As we've seen, astronauts measure their mass by measuring the period of oscillation when sitting in a chair connected to a spring. the body mass measurement device on skylab, a 1970 s space station, had a spring constant of 606 n/m. the empty chair oscillated with a period of 0.901 s. part a what is the mass of an astronaut who oscillates with a period of 2.28 s when sitting in the chair?

Question

Physics

Miya Mckinney

16 March, 10:12

As we've seen, astronauts measure their mass by measuring the period of oscillation when sitting in a chair connected to a spring. the body mass measurement device on skylab, a 1970 s space station, had a spring constant of 606 n/m. the empty chair oscillated with a period of 0.901 s. part a what is the mass of an astronaut who oscillates with a period of 2.28 s when sitting in the chair?

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Gemma George · Answer 1

The solution for this problem is:

m = k * (T/2pi) ^2

mass of chair is computed by: 606 * (0.889/2pi) ^2 = 12.13 kg

mass of chair + astronaut is computed by: 606 * (2.15/2pi) ^2 = 70.96 kg

so mass of astronaut is now 70.96 - 12.13 kg = 58.8 kg (3 s. f.)