Question

1. A tennis ball is dropped from a second story window. It is in free fall, accelerating downward at a rate of 9.8 m/s2. At the exact same time, another person throws a tennis ball out the adjacent window with a horizontal velocity of 30 m/s. Assuming no air resistance, which ball hits the ground first? Why?

Answer 1

Answer:

Both balls will hit the ground at the same time, because gravity is constant.

Explanation:

Notice that both balls are being thrown at the same initial height.

It's important to know that these movements which depends of gravity (a constant acceleratio) they would fall at the same rythm, because the gravity is a constant.

Remember that gravity is an acceleration, which it's defined as the change of the velocity, so if both balls change their vertical velocity at the same rate, then they will fall at the same time, because they have the same initial height.

Additionally, when you throw a ball horizontally, it will bend down due to gravity, and this falling movement is the same as if you throw vertically as a free falling movement.

Therefore, both balls will hit the ground at the same time, because gravity is constant.