Question

A baseball player starts running to the left to catch the ball as soon as the hit is made. Use the particle model to draw a motion diagram showing the position and average velocity vectors of the player during the first few seconds of the run.

Short answer

The motion diagram is drawn.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Write the given information

The baseball player runs towards the left to catch the ball.
The motion of the player is linear and one-dimensional.
The velocity and the acceleration of the player are also towards the left.
The position of the player with respect to time is a linear relationship.

Step 2. To draw the motion diagram.

• The motion diagram shows the position of the player with the time. Each point represents the position of the player after an equal interval of time. The distance between the two points is the distance covered by the player in each time interval.
• The player would start with high speed in the beginning, however, as soon as he would reach the ball, his speed would decrease.
  Therefore, the distance covered by him in beginning would be higher than the distance covered in the last.
• The average velocity of the player is given by

$v_{avg}=\frac{∆x}{∆t}=\frac{x_2-x_1}{t_2-t_1}$

The velocity of the player would decrease with time. That is why the direction of the velocity is in the right direction.