Two ice skaters are skating toward one another. Neither skater ispaying much att

Question

Two ice skaters are skating toward one another. Neither skater ispaying much attention, so they collide. One of the ice skaters is alarge man with a mass of 126.0 kg. The other skater is a small boywhose mass is only 37.0 kg. Before the collision, both skaters havea speed of 4.7 m/s. When they collide, the man picks up the boy,and their final speed is 3.10 m/s, in the direction the man wasmoving. The magnitude of the force that the man exerts on the boyat the instant they collide is 985.0 Newtons. What is the magnitudeof the force that the boy exerts on the man at that instant?

Explanation / Answer

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so if theman exerts 985.0 Newtons on the boy, then the boy exerts 985.0Newtons on the man. However, the reason why the man continuesmoving and the boy goes with him is because of the difference ofmass, which means that the boy will experience a higheracceleration than the man, because he has less mass.

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