Question

In 1974 Nolan Ryan broke the existing record for the fastest pitch thrown in Major League Baseball. If this pitch were thrown horizontally, the ball would fall 0.809 m by the time it reached home plate, 18.3 m away. How fast was Ryan’s pitch?

Answer 1

Answer:

45.06 m/s

Step-by-step explanation:

Let gravitational acceleration g = 9.81 m/s2. We can calculate the amount of time for the ball to fall vertically a distance of 0.809 m

$0.809 = 9.81t^2/2$

$t^2 = 2*0.809/9.81 = 0.165$

$t = \sqrt{0.165} = 0.406 s$

This is also the time it takes for the ball to fly horizontally, assume constant horizontal speed, we can calculate the speed it takes to travel across 18.3m in 0.406s

v = 18.3 / 0.406 = 45.06 m/s