A football player of mass 129 kg is running at a speed of 6.9
m/s when he catches a ball thrown by the quarterback. The mass of
the ball is 0.41 kg it has a speed of 22.0 m/s just before the
player caught it. Assuming that the football player catches the
ball with his feet off the ground and both the player and ball are
moving horizontally and in the same direction, calculate the final
velocity of the ball and player.
Calculate the loss of kinetic energy in this case.
Instead, the ball was intercepted by the safety of the same mass
but running in the opposite direction at the same speed of 6.9 m/s.
What is the final speed in this situation?
What is the loss in kinetic energy for the second case? (Might
the loss of kinetic energy be related to how much it hurts to catch
the pass?)