A comet with a mass of 7.95 1011 kg strikes Earth at a speed of 22 km/s.

(a) Find the kinetic energy of the comet in joules.
____ J

(b) Compare the work that is done by Earth in stopping the comet to the 4.2 1015 J of energy that was released by the largest nuclear weapon ever built. Do this by calculating how many of these bombs would be equivalent to the energy of the comet. Such a comet collision has been suggested as having caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
____ bombs

I will be happy to critique your thinking. I am not much inclined to fill in your blanks.

on b) number bombs*energy/bomb= comet energy.

To find the kinetic energy of the comet, we can use the formula:

Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity^2

(a) Given:
Mass of the comet (m) = 7.95 x 10^11 kg
Velocity of the comet (v) = 22 km/s

First, we need to convert the velocity from km/s to m/s:
1 km/s = 1000 m/s
So, the velocity of the comet in m/s is:
22 km/s * 1000 m/s = 22000 m/s

Now, we can substitute the values into the formula:
Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * (7.95 x 10^11 kg) * (22000 m/s)^2

Calculating this equation will give us the kinetic energy of the comet in joules.

(b) To compare the work done by Earth in stopping the comet to the energy released by the nuclear bomb, we need to find out how many nuclear bombs would be equivalent to the energy of the comet.

Given:
Energy released by the largest nuclear weapon = 4.2 x 10^15 J

We need to calculate:
Number of bombs = (Kinetic Energy of the comet) / (Energy released by each bomb)

Substitute the values and calculate to find the number of bombs equivalent to the energy of the comet.

To calculate the kinetic energy of the comet, we'll use the formula:

Kinetic energy (KE) = (1/2) * mass * velocity^2

(a) Now let's calculate the kinetic energy of the comet:

Mass of the comet (m) = 7.95 * 10^11 kg
Velocity of the comet (v) = 22 km/s = 22,000 m/s

KE = (1/2) * m * v^2
= (1/2) * 7.95 * 10^11 * (22,000)^2 (in SI units)

Calculating this using a calculator, the kinetic energy of the comet is approximately 1.859 * 10^19 J.

Therefore, the kinetic energy of the comet striking Earth is approximately 1.859 * 10^19 J.

(b) To compare the kinetic energy of the comet to the energy released by the largest nuclear weapon, we need to calculate how many of these bombs would be equivalent to the energy of the comet.

Let's assume the largest nuclear weapon's energy is 4.2 * 10^15 J.

Number of bombs = (Energy of comet) / (Energy of one bomb)

Number of bombs = (1.859 * 10^19 J) / (4.2 * 10^15 J)

Calculating this using a calculator, the number of bombs equivalent to the energy of the comet is approximately 4,426.19 bombs.

Therefore, the energy released by the comet striking Earth is equivalent to approximately 4,426.19 nuclear bombs.