Question

A baseball player leads off the game and hits a long home run. The ball leaves the bat at an angle of 70.0 from the horizontal with a velocity of 55.0 m/s. How far will it travel in the air?

Answer 1

Answer: 211.059 m

Explanation:

We have the following data:

$\theta=70\°$ The angle at which the ball leaves the bat

$V_{o}=55 m/s$ The initial velocity of the ball

$g=-9.8 m/s^{2}$ The acceleration due gravity

We need to find how far (horizontally) the ball travels in the air: $x$

Firstly we need to know this velocity has two components:

Horizontally:

$V_{ox}=V_{o}cos \theta$ (1)

$V_{ox}=55 m/s cos(70\°)=18.811 m/s$ (2)

Vertically:

$V_{oy}=V_{o}sin \theta$ (3)

$V_{oy}=55 m/s sin(70\°)=51.683 m/s$ (4)

On the other hand, when we talk about parabolic movement (as in this situation) the ball reaches its maximum height just in the middle of this parabola, when $V=0$ and the time $t$ is half the time it takes the complete parabolic path.

So, if we use the following equation, we will find $t$:

$V=V_{o}+gt=0$ (5)

Isolating $t$:

$t=\frac{-V_{o}}{g}$ (6)

$t=\frac{-55 m/s}{-9.8 m/s^{2}}$ (7)

$t=5.61 s$ (8)

Now that we have the time it takes to the ball to travel half of is path, we can find the total time $T$ it takes the complete parabolic path, which is twice $t$:

$T=2t=2(5.61 s)=11.22 s$ (9)

With this result in mind, we can finally calculate how far the ball travels in the air:

$x=V_{ox}T$ (10)

Substituting (2) and (9) in (10):

$x=(18.811 m/s)(11.22 s)$ (11)

Finally:

$x=211.059 m$