Physics - Kinematics Question with Solution | TestHub

When a cricket ball is hit for the boundary, how does the player in the area know where to be to catch it ? Are there clues hidden in ball's motion that can guide the fielder. Lets just imagine ourselves in the cricket field. Let's assume for simplicity that we are in the plane of projection of the ball. All we need to decide is whether we should move towards the ball, away from it, or stand still to catch. If the ball falls short of you, the path of ball is as shown in figure-1. In such a case, the line joining ball and you makes increasing angle $\alpha$ with horizontal and then after a certain maximum, the angle $\alpha$ with the horizontal starts decreasing. If the ball goes right over your head as in figure-2, the line joining ball and you makes continuously increasing angle with the horizontal. Then you should move back. If you are at the right position, the angle $\alpha$ made by the line joining ball and you makes increasing angle with horizontal and is maximum when it reaches you (figure-3). when it is about to reach you, angle becomes almost constant.