Question

A baseball is thrown by the center fielder (from shoulder level) to home plate where it is caught (on the fly at eye level) by the catcher. At what point does the magnitude of the vertical component of velocity have its maximum value? (air resistance is negligible)

Answer 1

At the highest point of the trajectory the vertical component will have its zero velocity, and the descent caused by the force of gravity will begin.

Since the ball is thrown with a certain speed, the vertical component reaches its highest point (upwards), until returning to the receiver who will receive the ball with the same vertical component but in the opposite direction (downwards).

Therefore the vertical component will have its highest value at launch.