Answer:
Because the mass of the person is larger
Explanation:
Since there are no external forces acting on the person+bowling ball system, the total momentum of the system is conserved.
The total momentum of the system before the bowling ball is thrown is zero, as they are both at rest:
[tex]p_i = 0[/tex]
While the total momentum after the ball has been thrown is:
[tex]p_f = mv+MV[/tex]
where
m is the mass of the ball
v is the velocity of the ball
M is the mass of the person
V is the recoil velocity of the person
Since the total momentum is conserved, we can write
[tex]p_i = p_f[/tex]
So
[tex]0=mv+MV[/tex]
Which can be re-arranged as
[tex]V=-\frac{m}{M}v[/tex]
We see that the ratio [tex]\frac{m}{M}[/tex] is very small since the mass of the ball is much smaller than the mass of the person: therefore, V will be much lower than v, so the recoil velocity of the person is much lower than the velocity of the ball.
