Question

A baseball is hit that just goes over a wall that is 45.4m high. If the baseball is traveling at 46.2 m/s at an angle of 32.7° below the horizontal when it crosses the wall, and if the ball was initially hit by the batter when the ball was 1m above the ground, a. What was the ball’s initial velocity (state speed and angle)

Answer 1

54.9 m/s at 44.9 degrees

Step-by-step explanation:

If the ball has a total velocity of 46.2 m/s, at an angle of -32.7 degrees, we can decompose its speed into its horizontal and vertical components.

Vx = V * cos(a) = 46.2 * cos(-32.7) = 38.9 m/s

Vy = V * sin(a) = 46.2 * sin(-32.7) = -25 m/s

SInce there is no force on the horizontal direction (omitting air drag), we can assume constant horizontal speed.

Since a ball thrown is at free fall, only affected by gravity (omitting air drag), we can say it is affected by constant acceleration, therefore we can use

Y(t) = Y0 + Vy0 *t + 1/2 * a * t^2

We consider t=0 as the moment when the ball was hit, so in this case Y0 = 1 m

If we take the first derivative of the equation of position, we get the equation for speed

V(t) = Vy0 + a * t

We know that being t2 the moment the ball goes over the wall

V(t2) = -25 m/s

Y(t2) = 45.4 m

So:

45.4 = 1 + Vy0 * t2 + 1/2 * a * t2^2

-25 = Vy0 + a * t2

Then:

Vy0 = -25 - a * t2

So:

45.4 = 1 + (-25 - a * t2) * t2 + 1/2 * a * t2^2

0 = -44.4 - 25 * t2 - 1/2 * a * t2^2

a = -9.81 m/s^2

0 = -44.4 - 25 * t2 + 4.9 * t2^2

Solving this quadratic equation we get:

t1 = -1.39 s

t2 = 6.5 s

Since we are looking for a positive value we disregard t1.

Now we can obtain Vy0:

Vy0 = -25 + 9.81 * 6.5 = 38.76 m/s

Since horizontal speed is constant Vx0 = 38.9 m/s

By Pythagoras theorem we obtain the value of the initial speed:

`V0 = √(Vx0^2 + Vy0^2) = √(38.9^2 + 38.76^2) = 54.9 m/s`

The angle is in the the first quadrant because both comonents ate positive, so: 0 < a < 90

a = atan(Vy0/Vx0) = 44.9 degrees