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

AM
Answered by Alexandros M. Physics tutor

5186 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

What is the period and frequency of a wave? - GCSE or A-Level students may ask this


A body is moving at 70km/h and has a mass of 130kg, calculate its maximum kinetic energy.


If a ball is thrown on the Moon, the projectile would have a greater range than if it were to have been thrown on Earth. Why is this the case?


A) Draw field lines around a positive point particle. B) How does a faraday cage prevent the people within it recieving a electric shock ?


We're here to help

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

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences