12. A baseball player throws a ball from left field toward home plate. Assume that you can neglect the effects of air resistance. At the instant the ball reaches its highest point, what is the direction of the ball's acceleration?
A) up
B) down
C) horizontal
I think this answer is B as well
Well, let me juggle this question for you. When the baseball reaches its highest point, gravity is still pulling it back down to Earth. So, the direction of acceleration is indeed... (drum roll, please!)... B) down! Gravity just loves dragging us down, doesn't it?
The correct answer is A) up.
When the ball reaches its highest point, the direction of its velocity is horizontal, meaning the ball is not going up or down. However, despite this, there is still a force acting on the ball due to gravity. Since the force of gravity always acts vertically downward, the acceleration of the ball is directed upward.
To clarify, the acceleration of the ball is in the opposite direction of the force of gravity, which is vertically downward. This means the ball is accelerating upward at its highest point.
To determine the direction of the ball's acceleration at the instant it reaches its highest point, we need to consider the forces acting on the ball. In this case, we can neglect air resistance.
At the highest point of the ball's trajectory, its velocity is momentarily zero (since the ball changes direction at the highest point). The only force acting on the ball is the force of gravity, which always acts downwards.
Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. Since the velocity is momentarily zero at the highest point, the ball's acceleration is solely determined by the force of gravity.
The direction of gravity is always towards the center of the Earth, which is downwards. Hence, the direction of the ball's acceleration at the instant it reaches its highest point is B) down.