A handball of mass 45 grams strikes a hard wall perpendicularly with an initial speed of 46m/s. The handball is in contact with the wall for 0.078 seconds, and then rebounds straight back with a speed of 39m/s. What average force was applied to the ball?

Question

Use impulse and momentum to solve.

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Answer 1 · 2018-04-05T17:59:03

I tried this:

Here I would use the Theorem of Impulse and Change in Momentum:

#I=Deltap#

#F_(av)Deltat=mv_f-mv_i#

#F_(av)=(mv_f-mv_i)/(Deltat)=(0.045(-39)-0.045(46))/0.078=-49N#

Where I considered the signs corresponding to the directions of the velocities:

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