The Merlin rocket engines developed by SpaceX can produce 7.26 ✕ 105 N of instantaneous thrust with an exhaust speed of 3.05 ✕ 103 m/s in vacuum. What mass of fuel does the engine burn each second to produce this thrust? (Enter your answer in kg/s.)

238 kg/s

Explanation:

We are given;

Instantaneous Thrust; T = 7.26 × 10^(5) N

Exhaust speed; V_t = 3.05 × 10^(3) m/s

Now, the formula for the instantaneous thrust is given by;

T = V_t × ΔM/Δt

Since we are looking for mass of fuel the engine burns per second, then;

ΔM/Δt = T/V_t

Where ΔM/Δt is the mass of fuel burned per second.

Thus;

ΔM/Δt = (7.26 × 10^(5))/(3.05 × 10^(3))

ΔM/Δt ≈ 238 kg/s