An astronaut is taking a space walk near the shuttle when her safety tether breaks. What should the astronaut do to get back to the shuttle?

Answer: Take a tool from her tool belt and throw it away from the shuttle.

Next Question:Assuming that the astronaut can throw any tool with the same force, what tool should be thrown to get back to the shuttle as soon as possible?

a. The tool with the smallest mass.
b. The tool with the largest mass.
c. Any tool, since the mass of the tool would make no difference.

a. The tool with the smallest mass.

To determine which tool the astronaut should throw to get back to the shuttle as soon as possible, we need to understand the concept of momentum.

Momentum is the product of an object's mass and its velocity. According to the law of conservation of momentum, if there are no external forces acting on the system, the total momentum before an event is equal to the total momentum after the event.

In this case, when the astronaut throws a tool away from the shuttle, she will experience a reaction force in the opposite direction due to the law of conservation of momentum. This reaction force will propel her back towards the shuttle.

Since momentum depends on both mass and velocity, we want to consider the tool that can provide the highest momentum change when thrown. To achieve this, we need to throw a tool with the largest mass.

Therefore, the correct option is b. The tool with the largest mass.

Throwing a tool with the largest mass will result in a higher momentum change, which will push the astronaut back to the shuttle faster compared to throwing a tool with a smaller mass.

The answer is a. The tool with the smallest mass should be thrown to get back to the shuttle as soon as possible.