A small boat is carrying four people across a river. Without any paddling, the boat moves downstream at a steady speed of 5 m/s . If the average weight of the four people is 60 kg, then what is the speed of the boat after one person gets ?

If one person get's out of the boat, the speed will be 6.67m/s

Explanation:

The velocity of the boat is 5m/s, and we know that the weight of each person is around 60 kg, and we know that weight is equal to mass times the gravity acceleration, so the mass of each person is around 60/9.8 = 6.12kg

Now, the momentum of the boat initially is around:

P = 5m/s*M

and after one person drops, the momentum is:

P = v*(M - 6.12kg)

Where M is the total initial mass of the boat.

Now, the momentum conserves, so the momentum must be equal before and after one person gets out, so we have that:

5m/s*M = v*(M - 6.12kg)

now we need to solve this equation for v, that is the velocity of the boat.

v = 5m/s* (M/(M - 6.12kg))

Now, we do not know the actual mass of the boat, but we can think that M is equal to the mass of the 4 people inside the boat, then we have M = 4*6.12kg

v = 5m/s*(4*6.12/(3*6.12)) = 5m/s*(4/3) = 6.67m/s

So the final speed of the boat is 6.67m/s

some think that theories become laws, but theories and laws have separate and distinct roles in the scientific method. a law is a description of an observed phenomenon in the natural world that hold true every time it is tested. it doesn't explain why something is true; it just states that it is true.