A student is the pitcher on a baseball team. They pitch the ball toward home plate. It begins in a straight line and then curves toward the ground. What forces are acting on the ball?
Responses
magnetism and inertia
magnetism and inertia
inertia and nuclear
inertia and nuclear
friction and gravity
friction and gravity
friction and electricity
When a pitcher throws a baseball, various forces act upon the ball from the moment it leaves the pitcher's hand until it is caught by the catcher or hit by the batter. The correct forces acting on the ball in this scenario are:
**friction and gravity**
When the ball is moving through the air, air resistance, which is a type of friction, acts against the direction of the ball's motion, slowing it down. Gravity pulls the ball downward toward the ground, causing the ball to curve downwards as it travels towards home plate.
The options involving magnetism, nuclear forces, and electricity are not relevant to the physics of a baseball pitch. Magnetism and electricity do not play a role in the typical trajectory of a baseball, and nuclear forces are only relevant at the subatomic scale and do not influence macroscopic objects like baseballs in any noticeable way.
Inertia is not a force, but it is a property of matter described by Newton's first law of motion, which states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force. While the pitcher's arm provides the initial force to set the ball in motion, inertia is what keeps the ball traveling forward after it has been released. It is the tendency of the ball to maintain its state of motion.