I got a call from brother the other day and the conversation started with "OK, college graduate." I was a little worried and then he asked if I could help my 13 year old nephew with some math. Then I was really worried! He read the word problem to me and amazingly I thought I would be able to figure it out. The worst part was being able to explain how to do the problem over the phone (I need a webcam). We worked through it and he was able to understand how to do the problem.
The problem wasn't that difficult and it definitely doesn't take a college degree to be able to figure it out. See if you can!
A pitcher throws a ball at 55 mph and is 40 feet from home plate. When does the batter need to swing to hit the ball after it is thrown?
Let me know if you get the answer!
4 comments:
Kathleen,
Yeah! I am on your friends' list!!
I am a college grad, and even have a Master's Degree (ha!!) and I have NO CLUE how to even begin solving this problem!! you could ask Lou - and probably Grant - and they would get it right!
Hey Kathleen,
Sue told me that you blogged a math question, so you know I had to post the answer ;) I just hope I'm right!
We know 1 hour is 60 minutes * 60 seconds = 3600 seconds. So it is safe to say 55 miles per hour is the same as 55 miles per 3600 seconds. But it would be better if we could convert this down to 1 second, so 3600 / 55 = .0152777778. This means 55 miles per hour is the same as .0152777778 miles per second. The next step is to convert this to feet per second. I had to look up how many feet are in a mile cause I don't carry that knowledge around (1 mile = 5,280). So, 5,280 * .0152777778 = 80.67. So now we know that 55 miles per hour is the same as 80.67 feet per second. So it roughly takes half a second (.4958 to be more exact) for a ball going 80.67 feet per second to go 40 feet to the plate.
This doesn't answer the question, because if the batter were to start swinging when the ball got to the plate, then they'd miss the ball. So you'd have to take how long it takes the batter to swing and subtract that from half a second.
-- Mike J the DORK
I have a new found respect for Mike. I love being surrounded by creatively genius people!
Mike, I thought of the issue with the swing, but since my nephew is only 13 and not taking physics I thought I was safe not considering all of that in the problem.
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