Does it stop at the top!?

Question

sorry the question wouldn't fit above so here it is.....

when you throw somthing into the air, does it stop/pause at the top(or highest point it can reach) before coming back down again?

a friend asked me this a few days ago and its been confusing me ever since any ideas you guys have on the topic would be a great help

thanks in advance!

Answer 1

yea it stop for a moment .. because at that moment all the forces u acted on it has turned into kinetic energy n other form of energy... so the upward n downward forces is equal so it will stay... but because of gravity, gravity pull the object back to the ground..

IF u throw the object without gravity.. means like for example in outer space.. in a crtain maximum point it will stop there,static!!

Answer 2

Yes, there is an infinitely brief stop.

Answer 3

course it does...but only for an instant...

let us assume that there is no force exerted fom the object itself ie. it is not a rocket

let us take a ball

now when you throw it up, there are a few forces acting on it...let us see which

the net upward momentum that you have provided

air resistance and gravity downward and normal reaction...

now the fact that you've thrown this ball means that you have overcome gravity and air resistance atleast for now...

when the ball reaces a certain maximum height...the energy you gave it slowly turns from kinetic to potenial and the net upward force equals the net downward force of gravity and air resistance...so for an instant, the ball stays suspended in the air

they use this effect in some rollercoasters too

Answer 4

It stops but only for a few moments because the gravitational pull of earth pulls it back again onto the ground just after its velocity reaches zero.

Answer 5

i think it depends to the weight of the thing you throw if it is with light weight it will might stop for a while but if it is heavy it will easily pull by the gravity to get down fast.

Answer 6

"stop" in physics language means the velocity is zero.

think this way, as the object is moving upward, the velocity is positive, or >0. when it comes down the velocity is negative (pointing downward) or <0. so sowhere it has to cross the zero axis. That is the very moment when it reaches the top of its trajectory. in that sense, it stops, albeit momentarily, between the up and the down movement.

draw a velocity versus time and a height versus time graph, you should be able to see the point more clearly.

Answer 7

The ball does not actually stop... it slows down and near the top it is so slow that you can not percieve it moving much. It instantly turns and speeds up downwards.

This is even harder to percieve because a ball in the air has very little to compare it with (except air) so is hard to judge.

Because our brain likes to simplify things then it just percieves the very small movement as almost no movement at all.

To see if the ball does do this, try instead to throw the ball only about 5-10cm upwards (2-4 inches) because you can easily compare this with the position of your hand you will notice it does not stop at all, it just turns.