A student at another university repeats the experiment you did in lab. Her target ball is 0.860 m above the floor when it is in the target holder and the steel ball she uses has a mass of 0.0120 kg. She finds that the target ball travels a distance of 1.40 m after it is struck. Assume g = 9.80 m/s2. What is the kinetic energy (in joules) of the target ball just after it is struck?

11.8 Joules

Explanation:

Given:-

- The height of the target ball, si = 0.860 m

- The mass of target and steel ball, m = 0.012 kg

- The target ball travels a distance ( x ) after being struck = 1.40 m

Find:-

What is the kinetic energy (in joules) of the target ball just after it is struck?

Solution:-

- We are given the initial distance of the target ball as 0.86 m above the floor which travels a distance ( x ) after being struck.

- We will employ the one dimensional kinematic equation of motion to determine the initial velocity ( vi ) of the target ball as follows:

Where,

                  vf: The final velocity of target ball at maximum height = 0

                  g: The gravitational acceleration constant = 9.8 m/s^2

- Plug in the required parameters and evaluate the ( vi ) as follows:

- The kinetic energy ( Ek ) of an object with mass ( m ) and initial velocity ( vi ) is expressed as:

The kinetic energy of the target ball just after it is struck is 11.8 Joules.