Calculating Force Exerted in Space: A Problem-Solving Guide

[sebas531]

force exerted... Please help

An astronaut who weighs 798 N on the surface of the Earth lifts off from planet Zuton in space ship. The free fall acceleration on Zuton in 8.8 m/s2. At the moment of lift off the spaceship experiances an acceleration gravity of 8.9 m/s2.
What is the magnitude of the force that the spaceship exerts on the astronaut? Answer in units of N.


Please help me

 

[berkeman]

The question is not stated very well in terms of the extra force from the rocket acceleration, but whatever. Can you tell us how much the person weighed on Zuton before the ship took off? And how much force does the acceleration of takeoff add? What is the total?

 

[AussieDave]

Well since the Astronaut's mass is 798 / 9.8 which equals 81.43, shouldn't his weight on Zuton be 81.43 * 8.8 which equals 716.58? Not sure if that helps much :p

 

[ddevlin1]

I have the same problem as above with slightly different numbers...
The mass of the astronaut ends up being 74.1 in my problem (he weighs 726.6N on Earth)
Gravity on Zuton=7.8m/s²
The ship accelerates at a speed of 9.1m/s
I've tried to plug in numbers in Newton's 2nd law and still can't seem to come up with the correct answer. I figured that gravity and the ships 'a' must be part of the equation at some point but i can't seem to figure out how they fit.
Please help?