Question

A juggler throws a ball straight up into the air. The ball remains in the air for a time (t) before it lands back in the jugglers hand. What is the acceleration of the ball during the entire time the ball is in the air?

Answer 1

Answer:

$9.8 m/s^2$, downward

Explanation:

There is only one force acting on the ball during its motion: the force of gravity, which is given by

$F=mg$

where

m is the mass of the ball

$g=9.8 m/s^2$ is the acceleration of gravity (downward)

According to Newton's second law,

$F=ma$

where F is the net force on the object and a is its acceleration. Rearranging for a,

$a=\frac{F}{m}$

As we said, the only force acting on the ball is gravity, so F = mg and the acceleration of the ball is:

$a=\frac{mg}{m}=g$

Therefore, the ball has a constant acceleration of $9.8 m/s^2$ downward for the entire motion.