A student swings a bat horizontally, making contact with a ball thrown to her. The ball leaves the bat, and the bat continues moving through the rest of the swing. Which of the following statements describes the change in energy necessary to do work on the ball?

Question

Howard Downs

Physics

23 January, 02:58

A student swings a bat horizontally, making contact with a ball thrown to her. The ball leaves the bat, and the bat continues moving through the rest of the swing. Which of the following statements describes the change in energy necessary to do work on the ball?

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Answers (1)

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Tyrese Craig · Answer 1

Some of the kinetic energy of the bat is converted to work.

Explanation:

The missing statements are:

All the kinetic energy of the bat is converted to work.

All the potential energy of the bat is converted to work.

Some of the kinetic energy of the bat is converted to work.

Some of the potential energy of the bat is converted to work

Since the student swings, he has kinetic energy. That eliminates options A and D that have aspects of potential energy. From the law of conservation of energy, energy can be transformed from one state to the other but can't be lost. Since the energy possessed by the student makes the ball to leave the bat which continues to move from rest, it implies that only some of the kinetic energy is converted to work.