Carmen is standing on a giant skateboard that is initially at rest. If we ignore frictional effects with the floor, what is the momentum of the skateboard if Carmon walks to the right with a momentum of 500 ?
A. 500 to the right
B. 500 to the left
C. zero
D. 500
thought it would be A. but then again would the skateboard move to left meaning B.
To determine the momentum of the skateboard, we need to consider the conservation of momentum. According to the principle of conservation of momentum, the total momentum before an event is equal to the total momentum after the event, assuming no external forces are acting on the system.
In this scenario, Carmen is walking to the right with a momentum of 500. Since the skateboard is initially at rest, the total momentum before Carmen starts walking is zero.
When Carmen starts walking to the right, she exerts a force on the skateboard in the opposite direction (to the left) due to Newton's third law of motion. This force causes the skateboard to move to the left, but the total momentum of the system remains zero.
Therefore, the correct answer is C. The momentum of the skateboard is zero because the momentum of Carmen walking to the right is canceled out by the momentum of the skateboard moving to the left.