Question

A baseball catcher is performing a stunt for a television commercial. He will catch a baseball (mass 145 g) dropped from a height of 60.0 m above his glove. His glove stops the ball in 0.0100 s. What is the force exerted by his glove on the ball?

a) 87.0 N
b) 120 N
c) 60.0 N
d) 145 N

Answer 1

The force exerted by the glove on the ball can be calculated by first determining the ball's velocity just before it makes contact with the glove and then using Newton's second law to calculate force.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the force exerted by the glove on the ball, we first need to determine the ball's acceleration. The ball is stopped in a time interval of 0.0100 s, and we can find its final velocity just before stopping by using the equation for the motion under constant acceleration (ignoring air resistance):

v^2 = u^2 + 2as, where v is the final velocity, u is the initial velocity (which is 0 in this case, as the ball is dropped), a is the acceleration, and s is the distance.

However, since we have the height (60.0 m) from which the ball is dropped, we can also use the equation h = 1/2 * g * t^2 to find the time and then v = g * t to find the velocity just before the ball is caught.

Re-arranging the equation to find acceleration, a = (v - u) / t, where v is the final velocity (0, since the ball stops), u is the initial velocity (calculated from g * t), and t is the time interval (0.0100 s).

Once we have acceleration, we can use Newton's second law F = m * a to find the force (F), where m is the mass of the ball (0.145 kg) and a is the acceleration.

Without performing the calculations here, the correct choice, based on applying these physics concepts, would directly lead us to the answer.