On August 10, 1972, a big meteorite skipped across the atmosphere over the western United States and western Canada, much similar to a stone skipped across water. The accompanying fire-ball was so bright that it could be noticed in the daytime sky and was brighter than the normal meteorite trail. The meteorite's mass was around 3.0 x 106 kg; its speed was around 18 km/s. Had it entered the atmosphere vertically, it would have strike Earth's surface with about the similar speed.
(i) Compute the meteorite's loss of energy (as a positive number in joules) that would have been related with the vertical impact.
(ii) Deduce the energy as a multiple of the explosive energy of 1 megaton of TNT that is 4.2 x 1015 J.
(iii) The energy related with the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima was equivalent to 13 kilotons of TNT. To how many Hiroshima bombs would the meteorite impact have been equal?