- #1
Poopsilon
- 294
- 1
Sorry for the confusing title, I'm new to physics and have been studying some classical mechanics and I have some conceptual confusion.
Say someone hits a baseball with a bat. The instant the ball and the bat make contact the ball has zero velocity, and then begins to accelerate as the swing of the bat knocks it forward. Does the entirety of this acceleration occur for the fraction of a second that the ball and bat are in physical contact? So that top speed is reached as soon as the ball and bat are no longer in contact, and from there the ball begins to decelerate due to wind resistance.
Or does the ball continue to accelerate for some amount of time even after it's no longer in contact with the bat?
Thanks.
Say someone hits a baseball with a bat. The instant the ball and the bat make contact the ball has zero velocity, and then begins to accelerate as the swing of the bat knocks it forward. Does the entirety of this acceleration occur for the fraction of a second that the ball and bat are in physical contact? So that top speed is reached as soon as the ball and bat are no longer in contact, and from there the ball begins to decelerate due to wind resistance.
Or does the ball continue to accelerate for some amount of time even after it's no longer in contact with the bat?
Thanks.