Jitender Pal
Last Activity: 9 Years ago
If each person in succession runs parallel to the track with relative velocity vrel and jumps to the end, they do not impart greater velocity to the car compared to a situation in which they all run and jump at the same time. It is important to note that when all the people jump simultaneously, they impart a linear momentum to the car, which is equal in magnitude to the sum of their individual momentum but in the opposite direction.
However, when they jump, the effective mass of the train reduces by a larger amount, and the decreased inertia allows car to gain a higher momentum.
When persons jump individually, the decrease in inertia of the car is not large enough to give it a higher velocity relatively.