Question

What average net force is required to stop a 4 kg bowling ball in 0.5 s if it’s initially traveling at 10 m/s?

Answer 1

Answer:

-80 N

Explanation:

First of all, let's calculate the deceleration of the ball, which is given by:

$a=\frac{v-u}{t}$

where

v = 0 m/s is its final velocity

u = 10 m/s is its initial velocity

t = 0.5 s is the time taken

Substituting,

$a=\frac{0-10 m/s}{0.5 s}=-20 m/s^2$

And now we can calculate the average net force required to stop the ball by using Newton's second law: in fact, the net force is equal to the product between the ball's mass (4 kg) and the acceleration, so:

$F=ma=(4 kg)(-20 m/s^2)=-80 N$

Where the negative sign simply means that the force is in the opposite direction to the motion of the ball.