Arnav Prasad
Last Activity: 8 Years ago
I hope you framed the question right, it must be distance of man from floor when the ball hits the floor...
Apply concept of centre of mass, since there is no Gravity in the space, centre of mass will remain stationary.
X being the position,
Xcom = 0 = (MmanXman + MstoneXstone) / (Mstone + Mman) .
Xman = – MstoneXstone/Mman .
Xman = – 0.5(10)/50 = – 0.1 metre.
When stone reaches 10 metres down, man moves 0.1 metres up with respect to inital position.
Thus, distance between man and floor is 10.1 metres.