Homework Help: Chemistry

Posted by Lance on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 12:39am.

Any object, be it a space satellite or a molecule, must attain an initial upward velocity of at least 11.2 km/s in order to escape the gravitational attraction of the earth. What would be the kinetic energy in joules of a satellite weighing 2337 lb that has the speed equal to this escape velocity of 11.2 km/s?I use Kinetic Energy = 1/2*m*v^2
6.65e10 is the answer but I keep getting 146576.64 or 1.46e5, Am I missing a conversion factor? Here is the math I used
(1/2)2337(11.2)^2= 146576.64

Chemistry - DrBob222, Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 1:06am
1/2 m*v^2 is correct but you can't use mass in pounds. That must be converted to kg. The velocity must be entered in meters/s. The answer of 6.65E10 is correct.

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