Bdawn, it would be necessary to know the weight of the man on the frozen pond, before we can say how fast he would travel in response.

983 N man stands in the middle of a frozen pond of radius 4.76 m. He is unable to get to the other side because of a lack of friction between his shoes and the ice. To overcome this difficulty, he throws his 1.07 kg physics textbook horizontally toward the north shore, at a speed of 2.52 m/s. How long does it take him to reach the south shore? Answer in units of s.

Presuming that your man weighs 90 KG, the book weighs 1.07 KG, and he chunks the wretchedly written physics book away at 2.52 M/S, and the south shore is 4.76 M away.

Using Newton's acceleration constant, F=MA, we have .53 M/KG force. 

Now, presuming that my 90 KG colleague is not sliding on his pocket protector or the tape on the bridge of his glasses, and that his double-knit leisure suit has not tangled itself on anything, he somehow or other has imparted the same inertia to himself as he did in the book.  But if we must discuss inertia, we must also discuss obstinate office politicians . . . OH!  That's a different kind of inertia.

53 M/KG / 90 = .01 M/S rate of travel. 

It will take him 41.07 seconds to reach the south bank.  But in all reality, it would probably easier to reach the First National Bank, the way their loan officers grab at whatever money might be in his back pocket . . ..