Question

A baseball pitcher throws a ball at 97.0 mi/h in the horizontal direction. How far does the ball fall vertically by the time it reaches home plate, which is a horizontal distance of 60.5 ft away? (Express your answer in units of feet. Neglect air resistance.)

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

1 mile=5280 ft

1 hour=3600 seconds

Changing speed from mi/h to ft/s

$97 mi/h \times \frac {5280}{3600}=142.2666667 ft/s\approx 142.27 ft/s$

Time of flight, $t=\frac {distance}{speed}=\frac {60.5}{142.27}=0.425257732 s\approx 0.425 s$

From fundamental kinematics equations

$h=0.5gt^{2}$ where g is acceleration due to gravity whose value is taken as 32.2 ft/s2 and h is the distance

By substitution

$h=0.5\times 32.2\times 0.425^{2}=2.9080625 m\approx 2.91 m$