A basketball player throws his ball vertically upwards with an initial speed of v=40 m/s. Ignore air resistance. What is the speed of the ball at half of the maximum height?

Since we are neglecting air resistance the energy of the ball is conserved. We set the gravitational potential energy to be U=0 at h=0. Applying conservation of energy at h=0 and h=hmax , we get: U+ K1=U2 +K2(1), at h=0 the potential energy is U1=0 since we did set it so and at the maximum height the speed is 0, therefore K2=0. So, (1) becomes mv2/2=mghmax (2).

Now applying conservation of energy at h=0 and h=hmax/2: mu2/2+mghmax/2=mv2/2, and using (2) we get, mu2/2 +mv2/4=mv2/2, which simplifies to: u2=v2/2, therefore the speed of the ball at h=hmax /2 is u=v/sqrt(2)=28.28 m/s

Answered by Alexandros M. Physics tutor

4687 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

Explain how the photoelectric effect gives evidence for the photon theory of light.


If a bulb has a current of 20mA and voltage of 5V, and the current cost of electricity is £3 for a kW/hour. How much money would you spend to power the bulb for 8 hours? Are these good estimates for the current, voltage and cost of electricity?


What are the different classifications of sub-atomic particles?


How do I resolve forces on a slope?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo
Cookie Preferences