Question

A man is standing at rest in the middle of a frozen pond and holding a 7.00Kg fish. He threw the fish to the pond bank. If his mass is 80.0 kg and he threw the fish at 15.0 m/s north, how fast and in which direction did the man then slide across the ice? Assume the absence of friction)

Answer 1

The man slides across the ice at a speed of 1.31 m/s in the opposite direction of the fish throw.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this problem, we can apply the principle of conservation of momentum. When the man throws the fish, he exerts a force on the fish, causing it to move. According to Newton's third law of motion, the fish exerts an equal and opposite force on the man. Since the man is at rest initially, the total momentum before the throw is zero. After the throw, the total momentum must still be zero.

Given that the fish has a mass of 7.00 kg and is thrown at a speed of 15.0 m/s north, we can calculate the momentum of the fish.

Momentum of fish = mass of fish x velocity of fish

= 7.00 kg x 15.0 m/s

= 105 kg·m/s

Since the total momentum before the throw is zero, the man must move in the opposite direction with a momentum of -105 kg·m/s. We can calculate the velocity of the man using the formula:

Velocity of man = momentum of man / mass of man

= -105 kg·m/s / 80.0 kg

= -1.31 m/s

Therefore, the man slides across the ice at a speed of 1.31 m/s in the opposite direction of the fish throw, which is south. This means the man is sliding southwards.