- #1
Alexander350
- 36
- 1
If there is a ball falling from a height due to gravity, and you keep your hand still and let the ball fall onto it, it stops suddenly and makes a loud noise. However, if you lower your hand as you catch the ball, like when a cricketer catches a fast moving ball, the catch is almost silent. I understand that in the second scenario, the force exerted is lower because the change in momentum of the ball occurs in a longer time. However, since there is the same amount of GPE being transferred during the collision, why does the second one have a lot less sound energy being released than the first?