Determining Impact Time of a Ball given Launch Velocity

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the impact time of a ball thrown with different launch velocities toward a wall. It highlights that the horizontal component of velocity is crucial in determining how quickly the ball reaches the wall, regardless of the vertical component. A higher horizontal velocity results in a shorter time to impact, making the time for the second launch velocity less than the time for the first. Participants clarify that only the horizontal speed affects the time taken to travel the horizontal distance. The conclusion emphasizes that the ball with the greater horizontal velocity will always reach the wall faster.
rocomath
Messages
1,752
Reaction score
1
You throw a ball with launch velocity of \overrightarrow {v_i}=(3m/s)\widehat{i}+(4m/s)\widehat{j} toward a wall, where it hits at height h_1} in time t_1 after the launch. Suppose that the launch velocity were, instead, \overrightarrow {v_i}=(5m/s)\widehat{i}+(4m/s)\widehat{j}.

Would the time taken by the ball to reach the wall be greater than, less than, or equal to t_1?

I thought that the horizontal component played no role in a projectile motion? Answer is less than, I would have chosen equal to. Should I compute the magnitude in order to convince myself other wise (course it would be greater for the 2nd).
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
I thought that the horizontal component played no role in a projectile motion?

That's the ONLY component that matters here. Horizontal component is faster, gets there faster. When attempting to figure out how long it takes the ball to travel a horizontal distance, you're only interested in how fast it's going horizontally

Edit: So to make it even clearer, if the problem had the first case being 3 m/s horizontal and 45 sextillion m/s vertically, and the second case is 4 m/s horizontal but 3 nanometers/s vertical, answer is the same(EDIT and by the same I mean the same answer as the original question, which is the second one gets there faster)
 
Last edited:
I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'
Let's declare that for the cylinder, mass = M = 10 kg Radius = R = 4 m For the wall and the floor, Friction coeff = ##\mu## = 0.5 For the hanging mass, mass = m = 11 kg First, we divide the force according to their respective plane (x and y thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and according to which, cylinder or the hanging mass, they're working on. Force on the hanging mass $$mg - T = ma$$ Force(Cylinder) on y $$N_f + f_w - Mg = 0$$ Force(Cylinder) on x $$T + f_f - N_w = Ma$$ There's also...
Back
Top