Question

One of the fastest recorded pitches in major-league baseball, thrown by Tim Lincecum in 2009, was clocked at 101.0 mi/h. If a pitch were thrown horizontally with this velocity, how far would the ball fall vertically by the time it reached home plate, 60.5 ft away? ft

Answer 1

Once after thrown, the baseball behaves as a horizontally launched projectile with velocity as shown in the figure.

From given data, velocity of baseball is

Let it reaches a point P(x,y) after some time .

Since we need to find the vertical fall of the baseball for a horizontal travel of 60.5 ft, take

For a horizontally launched projectile, the guiding equations are

i) horizontal distance travelled is

ii) vertical distance travelled is

Therefore, from given data, the time required to travel 60.5ft horizontally is given by

  

  

Thus, the y-co ordinate of the projectile path for and is

here is acceleration due to gravity and its value is

Thus, the vertical fall of the baseball is