In: Physics
Your friend claims he can throw a baseball straight up with a
speed of 80 mi/h. You do not
believe him, so you design an experiment that will enable you to
calculate the speed of a thrown
ball. You attach a 0.5-kg block to a vertical spring. The block
hangs a distance of 0.05 m below
the relaxed position. Your friend stands directly beneath the
hanging block and throws the
baseball straight up. He releases the ball at a distance of 2.4 m
below the hanging block. You
design the experiment so that the ball sticks to the block after
the collision. You observe that the
block-baseball combination rises a distance of 0.18 m after the
collision.
Do you believe that your friend can throw a baseball with a speed
of 80 mi/h?