On february 15, 2013, a superbolide meteor (brighter than the sun) entered earth’s atmosphere over chelyabinsk, russia, and exploded at an altitude of 23.5 km. eyewitnesses could feel the intense heat from the fireball, and the blast wave from the explosion blew out windows in buildings. the blast wave took approximately 2 minutes 30 seconds to reach ground level. (a) what was the average velocity of the blast wave? b) compare this with the speed of sound, which is 343 m/s at sea level.

156.7m/s, almost half the speed of sound.

Explanation:

23.5 km are 23500m and 2 minutes 30 seconds are 150 seconds.

The formula for average speed is:

The ratio between this and the speed of sound is:

Which means that the average velocity of the blast wave was almost half the speed of sound.

luster is not a good characteristic to use by itself because luster is the property of minerals that indicates how much the surface of a mineral reflects light. the luster of a mineral is affected by the brilliance of the light used to observe the mineral surface.