A 74-kg canoeist stands in the middle of her 18-kg canoe. The canoe is 3.0 m long, and the end that is closest to land is 2.5 m from the shore. The canoeist now walks toward the shore until she comes to the end of the canoe.

calculate the distance from the canoeist to shore.

1 answer

cg of system does not move
originally cg is 1.5 m + 2.5 m = 4 m from shore
so
(74 + 18) 4 = 74 x + 18 (x+1.5)

368 = 74 x + 18 x + 32.4

335.6 = 92 x

x = 3.65

did not get much closer but pushed the canoe back a lot.