Question

Consider a 145 gram baseball being thrown by a pitcher. The ball approaches the batter with a speed of 44 m/s. The batter swings and sends the ball flying back at a speed of 90 m/s into the outfield.

If the ball was in contact with the bat for a time of 3 ms, what is the average force exerted by the bat during the collision?

Answer 1

For the development of this problem it is necessary to apply the concepts related to Force, momentum and time.

By definition we know that momentum can be expressed as

$P = F*t$

Where

P = Momentum

F = Force

t = Time

At the same time, another way of expressing the momentum is through mass and speed, that is,

P = mv

Where

m = Mass

v = Velocity

Equating both equations

F*t = mv

$F = \frac{mv}{t}$

Our values are given as

$m = 145*10^{-3}Kg$

$t = 3*10^{-3}s$

$v = 90-44 = 46m/s \rightarrow$ Net velocity

Replacing we have then,

$F = \frac{mv}{t}$

$F = \frac{3*10^{-3}*46}{3*10^{-3}}$

$F = 2223.33N$

Therefore the average force exerted by the bat during the collision is 2223.3N