A man is at rest in the middle of a horizontal plane of perfectly smooth surface of ice. He can move himself to the shore by making use of Newton’s :

A man at rest on a perfectly smooth, frictionless surface of ice cannot move by walking, as walking requires frictional force to push against the ground [c1][c3]. To reach the shore, the man must utilize Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction [t2][t4]. By throwing an object (such as a coat or a stone) or even blowing air forcefully in one direction, the man exerts an 'action' force on that mass. In response, the mass exerts an equal 'reaction' force on the man in the opposite direction [t3][t5]. This reaction force provides the necessary propulsion to move him toward the shore [t1]. This principle is also fundamentally linked to the conservation of linear momentum, where the total momentum of the system remains zero, causing the man to move backward as the object moves forward [t3][t7].

Sources

1. [1] Science ,Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 5: Exploring Forces > Snapshots > p. 77
2. [2] Science ,Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 5: Exploring Forces > Activity 5.3: Let us investigate > p. 68