Question

A man is standing on a boat in still water. If he walks towards the shore the boat will
A. Move away from the shore
B. Remain stationary
C. Move towards the shore
D. Sink

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this question, we will use the concept of Newton’s third law of motion. Newton’s third law of motion says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But we need to take care that no external force acts on the system that we have considered.

Complete step by step answer:
Let us consider the man and boat to be systems. Then we can observe that no external force is acting on the system. Hence by applying Newton’s third law of motion if the man is walking towards the shore which is in water then the boat will move away from the shore.
So, the correct answer is “Option A”.

Additional information: The other two laws are as follows:
Newton’s first law of motion states if a body is in rest or is moving with a constant velocity then it will remain in rest or in motion if no external force is applied on the body. This property in which a body cannot change its state of rest or motion is known as inertia.
Newton’s second law of motion states that the rate of change of momentum of a body is directly proportional to the force applied on the body.

Note: According to Newton’s third law of motion forces always occur in a pair and act on different bodies due to which they do not get cancelled even being equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. A body cannot exert force on another body without experiencing the same force on itself.