Calculating Speed of a Popsicle Stick in Water After a Bee Lands [SOLVED]

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A honeybee with a mass of 0.175 g lands on a popsicle stick and runs towards the other end at 1.69 cm/s, prompting a calculation of the stick's speed in water. The initial attempt at solving the problem used incorrect unit conversions, leading to an erroneous answer. After correcting the conversion from centimeters to millimeters, the recalculated speed of the stick was found to be 0.597 mm/s. The discussion highlights the importance of accurate unit conversion in physics problems. Overall, the problem was successfully solved with the correct final answer confirmed.
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[SOLVED] motion of a bee

Homework Statement


A honeybee with a mass of 0.175 g lands on one end of a popsicle stick (Active Example 9-2). After sitting at rest for a moment, the bee runs toward the other end with a velocity 1.69 cm/s relative to the still water. What is the speed of the 4.95 g stick relative to the water? (Assume the bee's motion is in the negative direction.)

Answer is in mm/s

Homework Equations


m1v1+m2v2


The Attempt at a Solution



I tried this 0+0=m1v1+m2v2 and plugged in 0=(0.175*-1690)+(4.95*v) and solved for v and got 59.7 mm/s but it was wrong.

** The bee is moving towards the right and the stick in floating in the water's direction towards the left.
 
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Your conversion to millimeters is incorrect:

1mm=.1 cm

not .001 cm as you seem to be using.

Try redoing the problem with the new conversion. Is your answer correct now?
 
So the answer is 597 mm/s? did i do everything else right? i didn't really understand the problem.
 
i just entered it and it's wrong.
 
Ok i see what i did wrong instead of -16.9 i did 169 so my final answer recalculated is 0.597 mm/s...correct?
 
mortho said:
Ok i see what i did wrong instead of -16.9 i did 169 so my final answer recalculated is 0.597 mm/s...correct?

Yes, I agree with that.
 
Thanks!
 
Anytime!:smile:
 
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