17.0k views
2 votes
Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens could routinely throw a fastball at a horizontal speed of 160 km/h. How long did the ball take to reach home plate, which is 18.4 meters away? (Show your solution).

User Adedoy
by
7.9k points

1 Answer

2 votes

Final answer:

To calculate the time it takes for Roger Clemens' fastball to reach home plate, convert the speed from km/h to m/s and then use the formula time = distance / speed. After the conversion, the ball's speed is 44.444 m/s, resulting in a time of approximately 0.414 seconds to travel the 18.4 meters to home plate.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how long it takes for a fastball thrown at 160 km/h to reach home plate, which is 18.4 meters away, we'll first need to convert the speed to meters per second (m/s). The conversion is as follows: 1 km/h = 0.27778 m/s, so 160 km/h = 160 × 0.27778 m/s = 44.444 m/s.

Next, using the formula time = distance / speed, we can calculate the time it takes for the ball to cover the distance of 18.4 meters.

The time (t) it takes is therefore t = 18.4 m / 44.444 m/s = 0.414 seconds.

Therefore, the ball takes approximately 0.414 seconds to reach home plate when thrown by Roger Clemens at a speed of 160 km/h.

User Greg Netland
by
7.6k points