If the rich man had not been so miserly, he would have understood the concept of momentum and velocity. All he needed at that point was momentum to acquire a certain velocity. All he would have done was to face away from the shores and throw the bag of coin with great force. This way, he would have acquired the velocity needed to push him to the shore by conserving some momentum. After all it is stated in the question that the ice is frictionless and thus he would be able to slide down to the shore.
An ionic solution would be able to conduct electricity where as the covalent would not so if you have a conductivity tester which are available in most labs you should be able to distinguish between the 2
