A 10-kg sled carrying a 30-kg child glides on a horizontal, frictionless surface at a speed of 6.0 m/s toward the east. The chil
d jumps off the back of the sled, propelling it forward at 20 m/s. What was the child’s velocity in the horizontal direction relative to the ground at the instant she left the sled?
1 answer:
Answer:
- 1.33m/s
Explanation:
We choose the system to be the child and the sled. The surface is friction less, which means that there are no forces exerted on the system horizontally. This means that the horizontal momentum component of the system is constant and conserved.
So we can use the conservation momentum principle to find the velocity of the child just after he leaves the sled.
This is shown in the attached file.
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