PHYS 2210 — Fall 2015

GA10 Solutions

Problem 1 Center of Mass: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo, who is sitting in the rear of their boat in still water, entertains Juliet by playing his guitar.
After the serenade, Juliet, who was sitting in the front of the boat, carefully moves to the rear to
plant a kiss on Romeo’s cheek. The 80-kg boat is facing shore and the 55-kg Juliet moves 2.7 m
towards the 77-kg Romeo. Assume there is no friction/drag between the boat and the water.

How far does the boat move? Does it move toward or away from the shore?

Solution
• Begin by drawing a diagram of the situation and establishing a coordinate system:

• Calculate the center of mass of the system before Juliet moves to the end of the boat:
N
1 X
XCM = m i xi (1)
Mtot
i
mj xj + mb xb + mr xr
= (2)
mj + mb + mr
mj (0) + mb (L/2) + mr (L)
= (3)
mj + mb + mr
mb /2 + mr
=L . (4)
mj + mb + mr

1
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• After Juliet walks to the end of the boat, the center of mass of the system cannot move since
the net external force on the whole system is zero.

• The final situation looks like this, where ∆ is the distance the boat moves:

• Now write an expression for the new center of mass of the system and equate that to the
original center of mass:

0
mj x0j + mb x0b + mr x0r
XCM = XCM = (5)
mj + mb + mr
mb /2 + mr mj (x0b + L/2) + mb x0b + mr (x0b + L/2)
L = (6)
mj + mb + mr mj + mb + mr
L(mb /2 + mr ) = mj (L/2 − ∆ + L/2) + mb (L/2 − ∆) + mr (L/2 − ∆ + L/2) (7)
= mj (L − ∆) + mb (L/2 − ∆) + mr (L − ∆) (8)
= L(mj + mb /2 + mr ) − ∆(mj + mb + mr ) (9)
∆(mj + mb + mr ) = L(mj + mb /2 + mr ) − L(mb /2 + mr ) (10)
mj
∆=L (11)
mj + mb + mr
55
= (2.7 m) = 0.70 m towards shore. (12)
55 + 80 + 77

Problem 2 Center of Mass: Run the Plank

In frozen Minnesota the Winter Sports Carnival includes some unusual events. Since it is dangerous
to run on ice, each runner runs on a heavy (240 kg) and long (40 m) wooden plank, which itself
rests on the smooth and horizontal ice. One of the competitors is a 60-kg woman who runs the
length of the plank in 4.4 seconds, quite an impressive time. Her performance is viewed by a crowd
huddled on the ice. The performance that they see is less impressive.

With what speed does the crowd see the woman moving?

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Solution
• When the woman starts to run, the situation looks like this:

xw = 0 xp = L/2
x

• When the woman starts to run, the center of mass of the system (woman + plank) is:
mw xw + mp xp
XCM = (13)
mw + mp
mw (0) + mp (L/2)
= (14)
mw + mp
L mp
= . (15)
2 mw + mp

• During her run along the plank, XCM cannot move since there the net external force on the
system is zero (we are neglecting friction between the plank and ice). Thus as the woman
moves to the right, the plank moves to the left by an amount ∆.

• To the observers on the ice, the woman moves to the right a distance L − ∆ in a time τ , so
her speed is (L − ∆)/τ .

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• At the end of her run, the situation looks like this:

0 x0p = L/2 x0w = x0p + L/2

x

• Now write an expression for the center of mass of the system after the woman completes her
run. Since the center of mass doesn’t move, then this can be equated to Xcm . Then solve for
L − ∆:

0
mw x0w + mp x0p
XCM = XCM = (16)
mw + mp
L mp mw (L/2 − ∆ + L/2) + mp (L/2 − ∆)
= (17)
2 mw + mp mw + mp
L
mp = L(mw + mp /2) − ∆(mw + mp ) (18)
2
mw
−∆ = −L (19)
mw + mp
 
mw
L−∆=L 1− (20)
mw + mp
mp
=L (21)
mw + mp
240
= (40 m) = 32 m. (22)
60 + 240

• So relative to the ice, the woman moves 32 m in 4.4 seconds, giving a speed of 32/4.4 = 7.27
m/s.

• Relative to the plank, the woman’s speed is L/4.4 = 40/4.4 = 9.09 m/s.

PHYS 2210