A baseball leaves a pitcher’s hand moving horizontally at 20ms−1. Immediately after release, precise instrumentation indicates that the ball’s translational kinetic energy is 75J. Ignore any change in mass due to the ball’s spin or deformation.
(a) Determine the mass of the baseball. Show all algebraic steps and include appropriate units in your answer.
(b) Later in the same game, the pitcher throws the *same* baseball at 30ms−1. Calculate the ball’s translational kinetic energy at this higher speed and comment on how it compares to the energy found in part (a).