Center of gravity

Two men with respective masses 50 kg and 60 kg 50 \text{ kg and } 60 \text{ kg} are sitting at the two extremes of a 4 m 4 \text{ m} long boat with mass 40 kg 40 \text{ kg} on a lake. If both men move to the middle of the boat, approximately how far will the boat move through the water during the process?

1.3 cm 1.3 \text{ cm} 13.0 cm 13.0 \text{ cm} 26.0 cm 26.0 \text{ cm} 13.0 m 13.0 \text{ m}

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3 solutions

Initial position of center of mass of the system (both men and the boat too) from the center of the boat = 50 × ( 2 ) + 40 × 0 + 60 × 2 50 + 40 + 60 m = 2 15 m \frac{50\times(-2) + 40\times 0 + 60\times 2}{50 + 40 + 60}m = \frac{2}{15}m

And finally the center of mass of the system will be at the center of the boat.

Since no external forces are acting on the system, so center of mass of the system should not change its position throughout this event.

But there is a gap of 2 15 m \frac{2}{15}m between initial and final distance of center of mass of the system from the center of the boat.

This means that the center of the boat must move 2 15 m \frac{2}{15}m i.e. 13.33 c m 13.33 cm through the water so that the center of mass of the system do not change its position.

Chew-Seong Cheong
Jul 30, 2014

Interesting question! The answer comes from the Law of Conservation of Momentum.

First consider the m 1 = 60 m_1 =60 kg man walks \frac{b}{a^2} to the center of the boat with a velocity v 1 v_1 . Since the initail momentum before the man walking is 0 0 , the total mass M M kg of the boat and the two men move in the opposite direction with velocity v 3 v_3 such that: m 1 v 1 = M v 3 m_1v_1=Mv_3
And since both the man and the total mass move with same time period, the distances s 1 = 2 s_1=2 m and s 3 s_3 m are proportional to their velocities, therefore, m 1 s 1 = M s 3 m_1s_1=Ms_3 s 3 = m 1 M s 1 = 60 50 + 60 + 40 × 2 = 0.8 m \Rightarrow s_3 = \cfrac{m_1}{M}s_1 = \cfrac{60}{50+60+40}\times 2=0.8m Similarly, when the 50-kg man walks to the boat center: s 4 = 50 150 × 2 = 0.667 m s_4=\cfrac{50}{150}\times 2 = 0.667m Since s 3 s_3 and s 4 s_4 are in opposite directions, the resultant distance s s the boat moves is: s = s 3 s 4 = 0.8 0.667 = 0.133 m 13.0 c m s=s_3-s_4=0.8-0.667=0.133m\approx \boxed{13.0cm}

An interesting and detailed solution

suresha hd - 6 years, 9 months ago

My solution inspired by @Arjen Vreugdenhil and @Aryan Sanghi .

Initially, \text{Initially,}

50 × 0 + 40 × 2 + 60 × 4 50 + 40 + 60 = 80 + 240 150 = 32 15 m \dfrac{50\times 0 + 40 \times 2 +60\times 4}{50+40+60}=\dfrac{80+240}{150}=\dfrac{32}{15} \text{m}

After moving, \text{After moving,}

0 × 0 + ( 50 + 40 + 60 ) × 2 + 60 × 0 50 + 40 + 60 = 2 = 30 15 m \dfrac{0\times 0 + (50+40+60) \times 2 +60\times 0}{50+40+60}=2=\dfrac{30}{15} \text{m}

Change \text{Change}

32 15 m 30 15 m = 2 15 m = 40 3 cm 13 cm \dfrac{32}{15}\text{m}-\dfrac{30}{15} \text{m}=\dfrac{2}{15} \text{m}=\dfrac{40}{3} \text{cm} \approx \boxed{13 \text{cm}}

Thank you both! I learnt something new today!

Vinayak Srivastava - 11 months, 3 weeks ago

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Excellent work @Vinayak Srivastava . Happy to teach you. ;)

Aryan Sanghi - 11 months, 3 weeks ago

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Thank you!

Vinayak Srivastava - 11 months, 3 weeks ago

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