Question

A 770 n man stands in the middle of a frozen pond of radius 10.0 m. he is unable to get to the other side because of a lack of friction between his shoes and the ice. to overcome this difficulty, he throws his 1.2 kg physics textbook horizontally toward the north shore at a speed of 10.0 m/s. how long does it take him to reach the south shore?

Answer 1

Momentum is conserved throughout this scenario.

Before the man does anything, the total momentum of him and his book is zero.  So we know that it'll be zero after he throws the book.

Momentum = (mass) x (velocity)

The man gives the book (1.2 kg)x(10 m/s north) = 12 kg-m/s north
of momentum.

Since the total momentum must be zero, the man himself picks up 120 kg-m/s of momentum south.

(his mass)x(his v) = 120 kg-m/s south = (770 kg-m/s^2/9.8 m/s^2)x(V).

His velocity southward = (120 x 9.8) / (770)    m/s .

He needs to reach the shore 10m away.

Time = distance/speed

        =  (10 x 770) / (120 x 9.8) seconds

        =  6.55 seconds