Question

the largest animal ever to have lived on earth is the blue whale. consider a blue whale with a mass of 1.4 x 10^5 kg and a top swimming speed of 10 km/h. what is the momentum of this whale at this speed in kg x m/s?

Explanation:

Step1: Convert speed to m/s

First, convert 10 km/h to m/s. We know that 1 km = 1000 m and 1 h=3600 s. So, $v = 10\times\frac{1000}{3600}\text{ m/s}=\frac{10000}{3600}\text{ m/s}=\frac{25}{9}\text{ m/s}\approx2.78\text{ m/s}$.

Step2: Calculate momentum

The formula for momentum is $p = mv$, where $m = 1.4\times10^{5}\text{ kg}$ and $v=\frac{25}{9}\text{ m/s}$. Then $p=(1.4\times 10^{5})\times\frac{25}{9}\text{ kg}\cdot\text{m/s}=\frac{3.5\times 10^{6}}{9}\text{ kg}\cdot\text{m/s}\approx3.89\times 10^{5}\text{ kg}\cdot\text{m/s}$.

Answer:

$3.89\times 10^{5}\text{ kg}\cdot\text{m/s}$