Answer to Question #149523 in Mechanics | Relativity for Mikkos Joshua Garcia

Question

Why can a batter hit a pitched baseball further than a ball tossed in the air by the batter?

Answer 1

The pitched ball has almost all of its original momentum (from the pitcher) in the horizontal direction. The bat changes the direction of the momentum (with little loss of velocity) and the batter swings at the ball adding more impulse to the ball. These motions combined allow for a home run.

B). The ball tossed into the air has no horizontal momentum to begin with. The momentum you can give it is calculated from the following formula$F(t_2-t_1)=p_2-p_1$