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What is the speed of Nolan’s Ryan’s fastball if it travels 4.6 meters in .60 seconds?

User Dex Dave
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2 Answers

24 votes
24 votes

Final answer:

The speed of Nolan Ryan's fastball, if it travels 4.6 meters in .60 seconds, is calculated to be 7.67 meters per second, which is approximately 27.61 km/h once converted. However, Nolan Ryan's fastball is known to reach speeds of approximately 160.0 km/h.

Step-by-step explanation:

The speed of Nolan Ryan's fastball can be calculated using the formula speed = distance / time. Given that the baseball travels 4.6 meters in 0.60 seconds, we can calculate the speed as follows:



Speed = 4.6 meters / 0.60 seconds



The calculation gives us a speed of 7.67 meters per second for the fastball. This can also be converted to kilometers per hour (km/h) by multiplying by 3.6, which would give us approximately 27.61 km/h. However, it is well known that Nolan Ryan could pitch much faster than this, with his fastball reaching approximately 160.0 km/h.

User Richard Crane
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26 votes
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To find how long it takes for the ball to reach the point above home plate
you would divide distant by speed,
which is the same as multiplying distance times the reciprocal of speed:
speed=distance%2Ftime <--> time=distance%2Fspeed <--> time=distance%281%2Fspeed%29

We just have to deal with unit conversions.
One mile is 5280 feet,
so 1mile%2F%225280+feet%22 and 5280+feet%2F%221+mile%22
are our "reduction-of-unit-multipliers" for distance.
One hour is 60 minutes and 3600 seconds,
so 1+hour%2F%223600+seconds%22 and 3600+seconds%2F%221+hour%22
User Nick Div
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3.1k points