How could the action force of a canoe moving through water be increased?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Remembering Newton's Third Law - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Do you not have a paddle?  If you have a paddle, the action of pushing backward on the water would equal to a reaction force pushing you forwards. So, increasing that backward push would increase the action force.  If no paddle, theoretically you could throw something the opposite direction from the direction that you want to go and it would give you a boost.  If you had some numbers, you could calculate the amount of force added.

Hope that helps.