The Earth has an angular speed of 7.272 10-5 rad/s in its rotation. Find the new angular speed if an asteroid (m = 1.07 1022 kg) hits the Earth while traveling at a speed of 1.30 103 m/s (assume the asteroid is a point mass compared to the radius of the Earth) in each of the following cases.
The asteroid hits the Earth nearly tangentially in the direction of Earth's rotation.
1 answer
The new angular speed of the Earth would be 7.272 10-5 rad/s. The angular momentum of the Earth is conserved, so the angular speed of the Earth does not change.
1 answer