Question

An airplane of mass 28849 kg flies level to the ground at an altitude of 20 km with a constant speed of 161 m/s relative to the Earth. What is the magnitude of the airplane’s angular momentum relative to a ground

Answer 1

Answer:

$L=9.29\times10^{10}kgm^2/s$

Explanation:

The angular momentum can be calculated as $L=r\times mv$, where all (except m) are vectors. Since the plane flies horizontally, we will be left with $L=hmv$, since the height h would be the perpendicular component to the velocity of any vector r from the ground to the plane. For our values:

$L=(20000m)(28849kg)(161m/s)=92893780000kgm^2/s$