Homework Help: What is the acceleration of the ball?

1. Mar 3, 2006

chrish

thatnks for helping.

ive tried this question all day, and its due tonight. here it is

The force exerted on a 0.145 kg baseball by a bat changes from 0.0 N to 1.0 104 N over 0.0010 s, then drops back to zero in the same amount of time. The baseball was going toward the bat at 23 m/s.
(a) Draw a graph of force versus time. (Do this on paper. Your instructor may ask you to turn in this graph.) What is the average force exerted on the ball by the bat?
________ N
(b) What is the acceleration of the ball?
____________ m/s2
(c) What is the final velocity of the ball, assuming that it reverses direction?
__________m/s

i already used up all my chances for part b, so that one is useless.
i tried finding acceleration using a= change in velocity over time,
but that didnt work. i tried finding the force also, but i kept getting the same answers (3335,2300,11500,-11500,72500.)
i understand the subject, i just cant find the answer. thanks

2. Mar 3, 2006

Staff: Mentor

Since you aren't given the change in velocity (in fact, you are asked to find the final velocity), you can't use it to find the acceleration. But you can use Newton's 2nd law to find the average acceleration once you figure out the average force.

What did you get for the average force? (From analyzing your graph.)