Toss a baseball bat through the air and it wobbles about its ____________________.
A) light end.
B) center of mass.
C) heavy end.
B) The center of mass will follow a smooth parabolic trajectory
The correct answer is B) center of mass.
When you toss a baseball bat through the air, it wobbles about its center of mass. The center of mass is the point where the entire mass of an object can be considered to be concentrated. In the case of a baseball bat, the center of mass is typically closer to the handle end because that part is usually lighter than the barrel end.
To understand why the bat wobbles about its center of mass, we need to consider the forces acting on it during the toss. When you throw the bat, you apply a force at one end to set it in motion. As the bat moves through the air, it experiences torque, causing it to rotate. This rotation occurs around the center of mass, which is the pivot point for the bat's movement.
If the bat is not perfectly balanced, with more mass toward one end than the other, it will wobble during its flight. The heavy end of the bat will tend to pull it downward, while the lighter end will move upward. As a result, the bat rotates around its center of mass, causing it to wobble.
So, when the baseball bat is tossed through the air, it wobbles about its center of mass, and this is the correct answer to the question.