A man paddles a canoe in a long, straight section of a river. The canoe moves downstream with constant speed 5 m/s relative to the water. The river has a steady current of 1 m/s relative to the bank. The man's hat falls into the river. Five minutes later, he notices that his hat is missing and immediately turns the canoe around, paddling upriver with the same constant speed of 5 m/s relative to the water. How long does it take the man to row back upriver to reclaim his hat?

Question

Carlee Jackson

Physics

16 February, 06:42

A man paddles a canoe in a long, straight section of a river. The canoe moves downstream with constant speed 5 m/s relative to the water. The river has a steady current of 1 m/s relative to the bank. The man's hat falls into the river. Five minutes later, he notices that his hat is missing and immediately turns the canoe around, paddling upriver with the same constant speed of 5 m/s relative to the water. How long does it take the man to row back upriver to reclaim his hat?

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Answers (1)

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Carlen · Answer 1

We shall consider all movement with respect to water assuming that river is at rest or motionless.

speed of canoe = 5 m / s

in five minutes, distance between hat and canoe = 5 x 60 x 5

1500 m

This distance will be covered by man in return journey. In this case his speed is 5 m / s again considering river constant.

So this will be covered at 5 m / s

time taken = 1500 / 5 = 300 s

= 5 minutes.

so it will take 5 minutes to row back to reclaim his hat.