• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Question 19 - Apollo 13/Newton in the Driver's Seat (1 Viewer)

Captain Gh3y

Rhinorhondothackasaurus
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
4,153
Location
falling from grace with god
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
What everyone write for this?

My answer was basically:

"Lovell was referring to the fact that the laws of gravity were now in control of the spacecraft, as these were discovered by Newton". I then described all the factors for re-entry, mentioned how he had no fuel and so he coudln't change the rocket's mometum again, and made a half-assed attempt at explaining how gravity and rocket trajectories work (seeing as it's not in the syllabus there wasn't much I could think of for this part)
And then concluded saying that the statement is justified because it means that the laws of physics, particuarly gravitation, are in control of the spacecraft.
 
Last edited:

charred remains

New Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2005
Messages
26
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
The question was fucked with a foetus and should die.... But basically I wrote about slingshot/newtons laws since they talked about newton, and people dying, which was a subtle metaphor for the writers of this quite fucked exam.

Fuck... I don't think I spoke about reentry, although to be fair the question wasn't worth the effort.
 

Dumsum

has a large Member;
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
1,552
Location
Maroubra South
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
LOL I almost laughed when I saw this question. I had no idea what it was going on about. But what I described was Newton's concept of escape velocity, and how when something is in orbit an extra boost in speed will allow it to escape the gravitational field. This is similar to what happened with them.
 

mAtboisLim

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2004
Messages
55
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
I said that Newton's third law is the rocket propulsion equation.

-F(gases) = F(on rocket)

I said that this force was required to get the rocket into escape velocity, to escape the gravitational field of the moon.

I then said that once the moon's field was escaped, Newton's Universal law of Gravitation predicts that the rocket will be attracted towards the earth.
 

sunjet

Hip-Hop Saved My Life
Joined
Feb 24, 2004
Messages
3,059
Location
woollahra
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
I talked about slingshot effect and gravity assist and burning of fuel.
 

Jago

el oh el donkaments
Joined
Feb 21, 2004
Messages
3,691
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
gravitational assist and entry window.
 

Rekkusu

Currently: Away
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
1,113
Location
UNSW
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Yeah I went with Gravitational assist and law of gravitation, since these two were like directly linked with Newton...kind of talked about slingshot as well.
 

serge

Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
Messages
635
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
i did everything's attracted to everything else
for a slingshot effect
and then then at the end the rocket uses
propulsion from every action having an equal
and opposite reaction
 

exa_boi87

aka biomic
Joined
Apr 3, 2005
Messages
216
Location
Hornsby
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
yeh i did escape velocity, newtons law of univerasl gravitation and slingshot ....
 

darkwarrior2

Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2005
Messages
52
Location
happy hardcore
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
im not sure if you need escape velocity, seeing as the rocket doesnt "escape" anywhere, it just uses the moons orbital velocity to assist in reaching earth.
 

fadykozman

New Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
15
slingshot effect, escape velocity.

Note that escape velocity is needed, how else is the shuttle will go back to earth if its KE is not > GPE with respect to the moon?
 

serge

Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
Messages
635
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
darkwarrior2 said:
im not sure if you need escape velocity, seeing as the rocket doesnt "escape" anywhere, it just uses the moons orbital velocity to assist in reaching earth.
it escapes the lunar orbit,
(it was actually written in the question)
gay, i should have used that :(

dang, beat to it
 

richz

Active Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2004
Messages
1,348
yeah, kinda gay q, i just said the statement was true, i related escape velocity to slingshot affect, saying they needed the slingshot effect to obtain the v needed to esapce the grav pull.
 

KFunk

Psychic refugee
Joined
Sep 19, 2004
Messages
3,323
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Figuratively speaking Newton was in the driver's seat 'cause the motion of the shuttle/rocket thingo was due to newton's laws and his eq'ns of gravity. It was more like an english task - explaining the function of figurative speech in language and how the Newton reference made sense contextually.
 

pravski

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Messages
83
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
newton in drivers seat because he went in a straight line from earth to moon, i.e. first law.

No friction and weak gravity, therefore travels in straight line and it reached earth so you know that the law was obeyed

you dont need escape velocity etc
 

jess_83839

New Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Messages
5
i talked about slingshot, F gravitational, acceleration, and some sort of the 'reverse' of the concept of escape velocity formulated by Newton (since the probe is coming back to the earth). i dont understand why it asked for 'newton's in the driver's seat, still...
 

serge

Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
Messages
635
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
pravski said:
you dont need escape velocity etc
you can use any of Newton's laws/ theories...
escape velocity is one of them
 

richz

Active Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2004
Messages
1,348
i agree, because they have to escape the moon's grav pull. BUt it was kinda gay, maybe i didnt read the entire q but was it me or did it say the spacecraft exploded?? if it did wouldnt they all die? lol, it didnt say they escaped lol.

But then again i dont read the q much lol :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:

chensta

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2004
Messages
58
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
it says after the rocket completed its burn, so that means it has to be out of moon's orbit already? cause it needs the rocket to 'push' it out, so we are explaning things from that moment on, which pretty much means that the rocket nolonger experiences external forces, therefore maintains its velocity towards earth and reaches earths atmosphere.....thats all there is to do with newton, once it reaches earth atmosphere, re-entry etc has nothing to do with newton, well there is gravity pulling it down, but i dont think that'll relate to the question
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top