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example

A bad guy of mass 100 kg has just robbed a bank and is carrying 200kg of gold bouillon. The problem is that he's inside of a stationary freight car with nearly frictionless bearings, and the freight car is on the verge of a precipice as pictured.

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  figure280

If he tries to move to the left with his gold all the way to the door tex2html_wrap_inline1293 away, the freight car, which weighs tex2html_wrap_inline1295 will move to the right, very possibly far enough so that he'll plunge with the car down the precipice. The freight car has to move only 2 ft to the right for this to happen. Will he make it to the door?



Joshua Deutsch
Fri Jan 17 12:19:41 PST 1997