Final answer:
In a physics scenario involving a ball dropped from rest and another thrown horizontally, both experience the same gravitational acceleration and will hit the ground simultaneously, even though one follows a curved path and the other falls straight down.
Step-by-step explanation:
The scenario described involves understanding the physics of projectile motion and free fall.
When a ball is dropped from rest, it accelerates downwards due to gravity.
The motion of this ball will be along a straight line.
Simultaneously, if another ball is thrown horizontally from the same height, it will follow a curved path.
This is because it has an initial horizontal velocity in addition to the acceleration due to gravity acting on it.
When observing the balls with a stroboscope, which captures images at fixed intervals, both balls will be seen to fall the same vertical distance at each interval.
This is because the vertical motion is independent of the horizontal motion, and since gravity acts equally on both balls, they fall the same distance regardless of their horizontal velocities.
Hence, if both are released from the same height, they will hit the ground at the same time, demonstrating an important principle of projectile motion that the horizontal and vertical motions are independent of each other.