A softball is hit at a 30 degree angle traveling 100 meters before being caught. At what speed did it leave the bat?

Your fukin crazy if you think that's the answer, lol.

Not enough info. How big is the ball? How much does it weigh, etc.

At what height was it hit from and what height was it caught at?

33.6 m/s is indeed correct. The op did everyone a favor by posting the significant figures, because it allows for higher accuracy when converting to M.P.H. If you use only 33.6 m/s you get 75.16 m.p.h. but if you use 33.6393597 m/s, you get 75.249104 M.P.H. which is much more accurate. 5 star thread op.

The question is moot. Atmospheric factors, such as humidity and wind, affect the travel of the ball, as well as the height from which the ball was hit and caught and the spin of the ball as it traveled.

the OP has worded the question incorrectly thats what is causing the confusion. The working out using the suvat formula only qualifies if you know that the object in question was at rest at the beginning like a cannonball waiting to be fired. Also with the same cannonball it lands unlike the OPs question in which he claims the ball is caught. And the ball can be caught from any height from just above ground to 2.5 m in the air. The op thought he was being clever but turns out to be a dick

never said what the ball was hit with,
never said what the angle was relative to
never said if the ball bounced, what height the ball was caught at from the ground, etc.

incomplete question is incomplete.

Hint Trajectory of a projectile - [link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

Ball rotation?

Wind?

Bat and ball energy absorbing value?

Bat velocity? accelerating or constant?

What the batter had for lunch?

Ah, but what facts and constants available, you have to work algorithmically backwards to compute the missing variables. Ouch, difficult to do if you are not a math/physics type but it is possible detective.

If we assume constant velocity with no slowing due to air resistance or wind
Tangent of 30 =0.577 so if was rising for 1/2 of flight, maximum height would be (0.577) x (50 meters) = 28 meters.

28 meters up plus 28 meters down = 56 meters

Time to fall 56 meters = 3.38 sec

Using cosine 30 degrees for hypotenuse, ball travels a total distance of (100 m)/ (0.866)= 115meters

115m./3.38s = 34 m/s = 76 mph
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Addendum--I rounded off poorly in my head, should have used 29 meters instead of 28.

Time to fall 58 meters = 3.44 sec

115/3.44 = 33.43 m/s = 74.78 mph

This assumes we are playing in a vacuum, and rounding off some distances. Without rounding off, the answer would be between those two speeds.

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With air resistance, the ball would be slowing constantly, so that its velocity at the end would be much slower than leaving the bat---hence the speed leaving the bat would be much faster--probably 90-120 mph. That's why pitchers get injured by batted balls--they're coming back faster than they were sent to the batter.
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some measured velocities, launch angles, and distances in baseball:
[link to m.mlb.com]

Last Edited by MarPep on 05/19/2017 12:55 PM

gravity? moon?
etc

Is it a flat bat from the Apollo missions?

It's a trick question, softballs and baseballs travel in yards and feet not meters and centimeters.

All the ballistic and trajectory formula equations to solve this problem are here - [link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

This is a tough one without knowing the speed of the incoming ball being hit due to Newtons law of action reaction. Or was the ball stationary? Also how tall was the catch height or do mean when it hit the ground?

But all in all it's speed was the same speed of the bat when hit.

Last Edited by Daggo on 05/19/2017 10:30 AM

Best thread ever. :yep-butthurt:

No way to answer because you are missing an important variable....

At what trajectory was it at when caught?

You are not too bright Op.

In fact you are full of stupid.

Love the girls fast pitch college softballs.

33.33333

^^^^This: you need the height it was hit at; the height caught at (the drop or arc over the 100meters distance); and the flight time to determine the ballistics.

WRONG

Please learn the difference between ACCURACY and PRECISION.

This. Also, was there a headwind? Tailwind? Plus a lot of other factors the OP doesn't mention.

there is no softball.

I bet the ball isn't a ball when hit with a bat, it's something like sphere? Sqeezed ball? From what point of ball we do measure the speed? Hmm. When leaving the bat: so it's from that side with contact with the bat? Or from the center of the ball, but it's not a ball at that time, if I'm not mistaken.
I'm Finnish so don't know for sure, we only play "pesäpallo" which is similar game.

Oh sorry, should have said geoid instead of sphere me thinks..