A man stands at one end of a boat which is stationary in water. Neglect water resistance. The man now moves to the other end of the boat and again becomes stationary. The centre of mass of the 'man plus boat' system will remain stationary with respect to water

Options

A. in all cases
B. only when the man is stationary initially and finally
C. only if the man moves without acceleration on the boat.
D. only if the man and the boat have equal masses.

Answer

A

Explanation

`F_(ext)` on system `(` man `+` boat `)` is zero and initially `COM` is at rest so that `COM` of system always remains at rest.