Please help! :)
A spacecraft which weighed 1,500.0 pounds on earth is traveling in deep space at a constant velocity of 100,000.0 ft/sec. Ground control wants to initiate a rocket burn that will accelerate the spacecraft 500.0 ft/sec^2.

What is the mass in slugs of the spacecraft?
What is the force of that rocket burn?

Question

Please help! :)
A spacecraft which weighed 1,500.0 pounds on earth is traveling in deep space at a constant velocity of 100,000.0 ft/sec. Ground control wants to initiate a rocket burn that will accelerate the spacecraft 500.0 ft/sec^2. 

What is the mass in slugs of the spacecraft? 
What is the force of that rocket burn?

anonymous · Answer

A slug is equal to 32.174 pound mass (a pound mass weighs 1 pound on earth) so a 1500 lb. weight on earth would be 1500/32.174 =46.62 slugs.  

Newtons Second Law;  force=mass*acceleration.  Since we are given the acceleration in ft/sec^2 and the mass is given in slugs the unit of force will be pounds.  In this case the force is 46.62slugs*500ft/sec^2=23310.7 pounds of thrust.

The spacecrafts current velocity is extraneous information.