---
title: "Two skaters, Skater 1 of mass \\(40\\text{ kg}\\) and Skater 2 of mass \\(60\\text{ kg}\\), are initially at rest on a horizontal, frictionless ice surface facing each other. The skaters push off against each other’s hands along a straight line, and the magnitude of the horizontal contact force \\(F(t)\\) exerted between them over time \\(t\\) is shown in the graph. What is the speed of Skater 1 immediately after the push ends?"
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url: "https://nerd-notes.com/ubq/124337/"
date_modified: "2026-09-28T14:04:54+00:00"
---

# Two skaters, Skater 1 of mass \(40\text{ kg}\) and Skater 2 of mass \(60\text{ kg}\), are initially at rest on a horizontal, frictionless ice surface facing each other. The skaters push off against each other’s hands along a straight line, and the magnitude of the horizontal contact force \(F(t)\) exerted between them over time \(t\) is shown in the graph. What is the speed of Skater 1 immediately after the push ends?

Two skaters, Skater 1 of mass \(40\text{ kg}\) and Skater 2 of mass \(60\text{ kg}\), are initially at rest on a horizontal, frictionless ice surface facing each other. The skaters push off against each other's hands along a straight line, and the magnitude of the horizontal contact force \(F(t)\) exerted between them over time \(t\) is shown in the graph. What is the speed of Skater 1 immediately after the push ends?

![A Cartesian graph with a horizontal axis labeled \(t\text{ (s)}\) and a vertical axis labeled \(F\text{ (N)}\). Light grayscale gridlines extend across the plot. The horizontal axis extends from \(0\) to \(0.50\) with major tick marks and numerical labels at \(0\), \(0.10\), \(0.20\), \(0.30\), \(0.40\), and \(0.50\). The vertical axis extends from \(0\) to \(350\) with major tick marks and numerical labels at \(0\), \(100\), \(200\), and \(300\). A single solid line begins at the origin \((0, 0)\), rises linearly to a sharp peak at \((0.20, 300)\), and falls linearly to touch the horizontal axis at \((0.40, 0)\). The line remains along the horizontal axis at zero from \(t = 0.40\) to \(t = 0.50\). No other labels, lines, text, or curves appear.](https://nerd-notes.com/wp-content/uploads/ubq-frq-generated/stem-fig-1-1790604294-5fWn2u.jpg)

- **A.** \(1.5\text{ m/s}\)
- **B.** \(2.5\text{ m/s}\)
- **C.** \(3.0\text{ m/s}\)
- **D.** \(5.0\text{ m/s}\)

*The answer key and step-by-step explanation are available to logged-in users at https://nerd-notes.com/ubq/124337/*