A74.9 kg person sits at rest on an icy pond holding a 2.44 kg physics book. he throws the physics book west at 8.25 m/s. what is his recoil velocity?me

His recoil velocity is 0.269 m/s to the East

Explanation:

This question is easily solved by using the law of conservation of linear momentum.

The formula for the momentum is

, where m is the mass and v its speed.

The person + the book are at rest which means their momentum is  

After the book is released, they both start to move and their combined momentum is

Where are the mass and speed of the person respectively and are the mass and speed of the book

Knowing that

(positive speed is assumed to the right or East), and the total momentum is zero:

=>

Since the sign of is positive, it's directed to the East