Yes, the boat moves backward away from the shore. By Newton’s third law of motion, when the sailor applies a backward force on the boat to leap forward, the boat recoils in the opposite direction.
A sailor jumps out from a small boat to the shore (Fig. 6.38). As the sailor jumps forward, will the boat move? If yes, in which direction and why.
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Yes, the boat will move in the backward direction away from the shore as depicted in Fig. 6.38. To propel himself forward onto the land, the sailor must push his feet backward against the boat. According to Newton’s third law of motion, the boat simultaneously exerts an equal and opposite reaction force pushing the sailor forward, while the sailor’s backward action force drives the boat backward.
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