Calculations

To make sure that the athletes understand how they should hit the ball to get the best chance of getting a kill, we used physics calculations. We determined the velocity the volleyball traveled at after I hit the ball and the force of impact I hit the ball at. We showed the calculations of my hit to represent the amount of force, and velocity needed in order to have the ball go fast, but still land in bounds. These calculations should help anyone new to the game, or anyone trying to improve their game. By showing the calculations in our video along with the formulas, the athletes watching can calculate their own velocities and force of impact so that they can compare their numbers to other professionals.

Concepts

In our video, in order to calculate all the calculations, we needed to use different concepts from the formulas. As you know, my group found the velocity of the ball, and the force of impact. In order to find these calculations, my group and I had to use a few different concepts. The concepts we used were horizontal velocity, vertical velocity, total velocity, and force of impact. Below I will clearly explain these concepts and explain how they are linked to my project.

Velocities

In my project, we used vertical velocity (Vv) and horizontal velocity (Vh) to find the total velocity of the ball. Horizontal velocity equals the horizontal distance the ball travels, 9 meters, divided by the amount of time it takes for the ball to get from my hand to when it hits the ground, 45/60s. That equation gave us a horizontal velocity of 12.6m/s. In order to calculate vertical velocity, you multiply the acceleration due to gravity, 9.8m/s^2 by the amount of time it takes for the ball to fall, 0.01s. Using this formula we got a vertical velocity of 0.1 m/s. The vertical velocity is very low because I am hitting the ball down. Finally, total velocity is found with the Pythagorean Theorem, a^2 + b^2 = c^2. The vertical velocity will be substituted into the formula with the variable "a." The horizontal velocity will be substituted into the formula with the variable"b." The total velocity will be the variable "c." For example, to solve for the total velocity of the volleyball, my group did 0.1^2 + 12.6^2 =c^2. Then we solved for the variable c to get the solution of 12.6m/s.

Force Of Impact

My group and I used the force of impact to represent how much force I used to hit the ball. We recommended using a force of 102N to hit the ball so that it comes down fast on the other side of the court, meaning the other time has less reaction time while keeping the ball in the court. In order to find the force we multiplied the mass of the ball, 0.27kg, by the change of total velocity, 12.6m/s. Then we divided that by the amount of time it took for my arm to come from the bow and arrow position to making contact with the ball, 30s. That formula told us the force of impact was 102N.

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