Two friends, Ankit and Bharat, each weighing 40 kg, sit at a separation of d on a frictionless platform. Ankit rolls a 4 kg ball along the platform towards Bharat, who catches it. Bharat subsequently rolls the ball back to Ankit, who catches it. This back-and-forth motion of the ball between the two friends continues. The ball travels at a constant speed of 5 m/s relative to the platform. Determine Ankit's speed afte

Step-by-step solution

Let the mass of Ankit be M = 40 kg and the mass of the ball be m = 4 kg. Initially, Ankit and the ball are at rest on the frictionless platform, so the initial momentum of the system is zero. When Ankit rolls the ball, it travels at a constant speed of v = 5 m/s relative to the platform. Let Ankit's velocity after rolling the ball be V . According to the law of conservation of linear momentum: M V + m v = 0 Substituting the given values: 40 V + 4 5 = 0 40 V + 20 = 0 V = - 20 40 = -0.5 m/s The negative sign indicate