Question

A tennis ball traveling at 25 m/s has a mass of 58.5 g and bounces off a wall with a speed of 22.5 m/s. The impact took 3.33 ms. What is the magnitude of the average force exerted by the wall on the tennis ball?


I want to solve for acceleration to plug into F = ma, but the problem is that I do not know distance/displacement. How else might I find acceleration, or is there a totally different approach?

Thank you!

Answer 1

It told you to use impulse (momentum) not F= mA
(Same thing but not getting into that)

average force = change in momentum/ time

change of momentum = .0585 (25+22.5)
time = 3.33*10^-3 seconds

now divide