Calculating Force on a Ball at an Angle

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
2 replies · 2K views
faiziqb12
Gold Member
Messages
105
Reaction score
3

Homework Statement



a mass of 100g strikes the wall with speed 5 m/s at an angle of 60 degrees to the wall and it rebounds with the same speed. if the contact time is 2 * 10^ -3 , what is the force applied by the wall and in what direction?

The Attempt at a Solution

I tried solving the question by using the wall as the y-axis and finding the acceleration along the y component of the velocity..
but I come up with the answer 250 which is wrong
the correct answer is 250 * underoot 3 and the direction is given to the left please explain how

thanks in advance
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Hello scary one,

You may assume there is no force (so no acceleration) in the y direction: the ball appears to bounce off with the same speed.

In the x-direction, however, drastic things happen: first it moves at some speed towards the wall and after the bounce it has the same speed but in a negative x direction. So there is a big ##\Delta v##. Your job is to calculate a from that with the relevant formula (oops :wink: )
 
thanks bvu.
I got it right now.