
Originally Posted by
Mr Rayon
When the space shuttle takes off, its initial acceleration is 3.0 m/s^2. It has an initial mass of about 2.2* 10^6 kg.
What is the magnitude of the upward thrust as it takes off?
EDIT:I tried substituting the value for the mass and the acceleration into Newton's Second Law of Motion (F=ma) but got 6.6*10^6 N. This is not the correct answer. The correct answer should be 2.9*107 N, according to my textbook. Could somebody please show me the complete working out? Perhaps I misunderstood what it meant by upward thrust?