Question

In a fast-pitch softball game the pitcher is impressive to watch, as she delivers a pitch by rapidly whirling her arm around so that the ball in her hand moves in a circle. In one instance, the radius of the circle is 0.610 m. At one point on this circle, the ball has an angular acceleration of 67.6 rad/s2 and an angular speed of 17.0 rad/s. (a) Find the magnitude of the total acceleration (centripetal plus tangential) of the ball. (b) Determine the angle of the total acceleration relative to the radial direction.

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) 181.05 m/s²

(b) 13.2°

Explanation:

Given:

Radius of the circle (R) = 0.610 m

Angular acceleration (α) = 67.6 rad/s²

Angular speed (ω) = 17.0 rad/s

(a)

Radial acceleration of the ball is given as:

$a_r=\omega^2R$

Plug in the given values and solve for $a_r$. This gives,

$a_r=(17.0\ rad/s)^2\times (0.610\ m)\\\\a_r=289\times 0.610\ m/s^2\\\\a_r=176.29\ m/s^2$

Now, tangential acceleration is given by the formula:

$a_t=R\alpha$

Plug in the given values and solve for $a_t$. This gives,

$a_t=(0.610\ m)(67.6\ rad/s^2)\\\\a_t=41.236\ m/s^2$

Now, the magnitude of total acceleration is given as the square root of the sum of the squares of tangential and centripetal accelerations. Therefore,

$a_{Total}=\sqrt{(a_r)^2+(a_t)^2}$

Plug in the given values and solve for total acceleration, $a_{Total}$. This gives,

$a_{Total}=\sqrt{(176.29)^2+(41.236)^2}\\\\a_{Total}=181.05\ m/s^2$

Therefore, the magnitude of total acceleration is 181.05 m/s².

(b)

Angle of total acceleration relative to radial direction is given by the formula:

$\theta=\tan^{-1}(\frac{a_t}{a_r})\\\\\theta=\tan^{-1}(\frac{41.236}{176.29})\\\\\theta=13.2\°$

Therefore, the total acceleration makes an angle of 13.2° relative to radial direction.