Is there lag as force is converted into acceleration?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of whether a baseball continues to accelerate after it has lost contact with the bat that struck it. Participants explore the mechanics of force, acceleration, and the effects of contact duration in the context of classical mechanics.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions if the acceleration of the baseball occurs entirely during the contact with the bat or if it continues afterward.
  • Another participant suggests that the force from the bat ceases immediately after contact ends, implying no further acceleration occurs once the ball is free.
  • A different viewpoint introduces the idea that microscopic interactions, such as electron repulsion, may cause a very brief continuation of force after contact, although this is considered negligible in practical terms.
  • Some participants note that the deformation of the ball and bat during contact could affect the timing of when the ball is considered to be free, but ultimately agree that the ideal case simplifies this to a clear end of force upon separation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the duration and effects of contact, with some asserting that acceleration ceases immediately after contact, while others propose that microscopic effects could extend the interaction slightly. There is no clear consensus on the implications of these interactions.

Contextual Notes

Participants acknowledge that the discussion involves idealized scenarios and that real-world factors, such as deformation and electron interactions, complicate the analysis without reaching a definitive resolution.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those studying classical mechanics, particularly in understanding the nuances of force and acceleration during contact events.

Poopsilon
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Sorry for the confusing title, I'm new to physics and have been studying some classical mechanics and I have some conceptual confusion.

Say someone hits a baseball with a bat. The instant the ball and the bat make contact the ball has zero velocity, and then begins to accelerate as the swing of the bat knocks it forward. Does the entirety of this acceleration occur for the fraction of a second that the ball and bat are in physical contact? So that top speed is reached as soon as the ball and bat are no longer in contact, and from there the ball begins to decelerate due to wind resistance.

Or does the ball continue to accelerate for some amount of time even after it's no longer in contact with the bat?

Thanks.
 
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end contact ends force of bat. Microscopically though you could imagine that the ball is repelling away the bat just a fraction of a fraction of a second pushed by electrons e-field of both ball and bat until the e-field repelling is effectively zero.

also when you hit a ball the ball deforms and the bat bends a bit and as they separate they go back to their shape. this means that even though the bat has stopped the ball may still be in contact for a fraction of a second and then its free. the instant the bat stops its not accelerating the ball. There could even be some drag if the ball kinda stuck to the bat. Nobody goes to this depth in solving this as these effects all cancel out.

but we use the ideal case, bat hits ball and accelerates it for a certain distance and then stops. ball is now in free fall going forward but being pulled down by gravity and slowed by wind resistance.
 
Yes, as soon as the ball is no longer in contact with the bat and the force is removed there is no more acceleration.
 
jedishrfu said:
end contact ends force of bat. Microscopically though you could imagine that the ball is repelling away the bat just a fraction of a fraction of a second pushed by electrons e-field of both ball and bat.

I believe this is pretty much the definition of "contact". The atoms in the ball never "merge" with the bat, but are repelled away from them. Once the ball has reached a far enough distance they no longer feel any significant force and we can say that the two objects are no longer in contact.
 
Excellent that's what I was hoping was correct, thanks everyone =].
 

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