Level 2: BRANCHING OUT: Sports, Animals, & City Life! 1. An MLB pitcher, Aroldis Chapman of the New York Yankees, can throw a fastball pitch
from the pitcher's mound to home plate, directly in front of him, at a speed of 100 miles
per hour (approximately 150 feet per second)! Consider that the pitcher's mound and
home plate are separated by about 60.5 feet determine the time that a hitter has before
the pitch reaches them.
complete

the velocity you are looking for is made up of two parts: horizontally velocity, vh, and its vertical velocity, vv. the actual velocity of the ball will be these two parts added together, and because velocity is a vector then they will need to be added vectorially.  

neglecting air resistance etc etc.,  

the horizontal velocity component will be constant (because there is no accelerating force in the horizontal direction.  

vh = 8 ms-1  

the vertical velocity component has an accelerating force: 'g'.  

using v = u +at where a = g = 9.81 ms-2.  

the vertical component of velocity, vv = 0 + gt = vv =9.81 x 2  

vv = 19.62 ms-1 . the zero appears because the virtical component of velocity at time t=0 is zero. remember, the ball was thrown horizontally.  

how fast it will be moving (it actual path (being a parabola )) will be the vector sum of these two.  

adding vectorally gives: -  

v = sqr root (8^2 + 19.62^2) = sqr root(64+384.9) = 21.18 or 21.2 ms-1

find the sum of the two horizontal vectors and the sum of the two vertical vectors

isoceles right angled triangle