Question

It is said that in ancient times a rich man with a bag of gold coins was stranded on the surface of a frozen lake. Because the ice was frictionless, he could not push himself to shore and froze to death. What could he have done to save himself had he not been so miserly?

Answer 1

To escape the frictionless ice, the man could have thrown his gold coins in one direction to propel himself in the opposite direction, utilizing Newton's Third Law and the conservation of momentum.

Step-by-step explanation:

The rich man stranded on a frictionless frozen lake in the story could have saved himself by using the law of conservation of momentum. If he had not been miserly, he could have thrown the gold coins in one direction, propelling himself in the opposite direction towards the shore. This showcases Newton's Third Law, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. By throwing the coins, he would create a force in one direction, and there would be a reactive force in the opposite direction acting on him due to the momentum being conserved. As he throws each coin, the opposite reaction would move him fractionally across the ice.

The situation could be made sense of using examples in Newtonian mechanics, specifically Newton's laws of motion and momentum conservation. This principle is also similar to how rockets propel themselves in space by ejecting exhaust gases in one direction to move in the other.