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Originally Posted by Nevadaref
Non-Euclidean geometry.  |
Sorry - I'm a Euclid fan.
To respond to your post:
Let's take two balls. (A) is a "line drive" - hit parallel to the ground, and we disregard the effect of gravity. (B) is a more traditional HR ball - hit in a parabolic arc (where we do have gravity). We'll assume that the horizontal component of both of their speeds are equal (let's say 10 m/s, for example).
If this is the case, B will have to have a greater overall AVERAGE speed, and we can see this in two ways.
First - geometrically, by combining vectors. Both A and B have the same horizontal speeds. However, ball A also has a vertical component to its speed. When we add the vectors together, the sum of the speeds of A will be greater than the speed of B.
Second - algebraically. In Mick's original example, he simplified the HR ball (B) to a line-drive style hit (A). Given this, the time for A and B to travel the same horizontal distance is the same. However, ball A travels a further overall path than B does. If two objects travel different distances in the same amount of time, they must have different speeds. (With the ball that travels further obviously having the faster speed).