Question

A woman (m = 45kg) is kneeling on the shoulders of a man (m = 70kg) in pair figure-skating while both are traveling at 1.5 m/s. The man gracefully accelerates the woman forward into the air.

Which object experiences the greatest impulse, the man, the woman, or both the same?

Answer 1

Both the man and the woman will be experiencing the same impulse, due to Newton's third law of motion.

Explanation:

This problem considers law of conservation of momentum as well as Newton's third law of motion. As per the third law of motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And the law of conservation of momentum states that the momentum is conserved after collision.

Since, here the woman is kneeling on the man, it is similar to inelastic collision where the man and woman are moving with same velocity. And as the man accelerates the woman, the woman will exhibit a forward force. While at the same time, the man will be experiencing a backward force of same magnitude as of the woman. This is in consistence with the third law of motion.

So both the man and woman will experience force of same magnitude but opposite in direction. As impulse is directly proportional to the force acting on any object in a given duration, so both the man and the woman will be experiencing the same impulse.