Question

A curve ball is a type of pitch in which the baseball spins on its axis as it heads for home plate. If a curve ball is thrown at 33.1 m/sm/s (74.0 mphmph) with a spin rate of 35 rev/srev/s, how many revolutions does it complete before reaching home plate

Answer 1

Answer:

19.35 revolutions.

Explanation:

Let the home plate is 18.3 m (60 ft) from the pitching mound and that the baseball travels at a constant velocity.

Given that,

Velocity of ball = v = 34.5 m/s

Spin rate of ball = 26 revolutions/s

Distance between home plate and pitching mound = s = 18.3 m

We need to find the number of revolutions it complete before reaching home plate. It can be calculated as follows:

$n=35\times \dfrac{18.3}{33.1}\\\\=19.35$

So, there are approx 19.35 revolutions.