College Physics (4th Edition)

Published by McGraw-Hill Education
ISBN 10: 0073512141
ISBN 13: 978-0-07351-214-3

Chapter 7 - Problems - Page 263: 27

Answer

The required speed of the balls is $100~m/s$ It seems unlikely that Dash can succeed because this speed is more than double the speed of a fastball thrown by a major league baseball pitcher.

Work Step by Step

The initial momentum of the system is zero. By conservation of momentum, if the balls gain a certain momentum $p_b$ in one direction, Dash and the skateboard will gain the same magnitude of momentum $p_s$ in the opposite direction. We can find the required speed $v_b$ of the three balls: $p_b = p_s$ $m_b~v_b = m_s~v_s$ $v_b = \frac{m_s~v_s}{m_b}$ $v_b = \frac{(60~kg)(0.50~m/s)}{(3)(0.10~kg)}$ $v_b = 100~m/s$ The required speed of the balls is $100~m/s$ It seems unlikely that Dash can succeed because this speed is more than double the speed of a fastball thrown by a major league baseball pitcher.
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