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Batting Cage Backstop: Force Pairs Between Bat, Ball and Wall

Grade 8 physical science: bat and ball sensor data show Newton's third law, then students test backstop panels against criteria for a batting cage.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-PS2-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use bat and ball sensor data to show that colliding objects exert equal and opposite forces.
Students identify third-law force pairs in sports.
Students judge backstop panel designs against criteria using collision data.

How to use

Read the passage together and act out a bat-ball force pair with two students pushing palms. Students then analyze both tables and write their panel recommendation on their own.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-PS2-1

Use Newton's third law to explain what happens when two objects collide and design a solution for a collision problem.

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Name Date

Batting Cage Backstop: Force Pairs Between Bat, Ball and Wall

Use sensor data and Newton's third law to explain hits and choose a safer backstop.

Bat meets ball

Read the passage and Table 1, then answer the questions.

Forces in the Batting Cage

1The Eastfield Middle School softball team practices in a batting cage, where a pitching machine throws balls at 20 m/s toward the batter. Coach Gabriela Szabo also teaches eighth-grade science, so this spring her class studied the forces in softball. A sports-science lab at a nearby college lent the class data from a practice bat and a test ball, each fitted with a tiny force sensor. The softball has a mass of about 0.19 kg, and the practice bat has a mass of about 0.8 kg.

2In each swing in Table 1, a batter hit a pitched ball. The contact lasted only about 1.5 thousandths of a second, and the sensors recorded the largest force each object felt during that contact. In Swing 4, the batter hit the ball near the handle instead of on the thick barrel of the bat.

3In gym class, Kofi Barros tested a sprint start on a starting block with a force plate. He pushed backward on the block with a peak force of 1,100 N and shot forward down the track.

4The cage has a problem. Its back wall is a bare plywood panel. When a batter misses, the ball slams into the plywood and bounces back fast toward the catcher's area, and the bolts that hold the panel have started to loosen. Rosa Takahashi's group tested five backstop panels. The machine threw balls straight at each panel. A sensor behind the panel measured the peak force, a radar gun measured how fast the ball bounced back, and the group measured how far the ball pushed into the panel.

5The team set three criteria for a new panel. The peak force on the panel must be no more than 1,500 N, so the bolts stay tight. The ball must bounce back at no more than 5 m/s. The ball must push into the panel no more than 20 cm, because a chain-link fence stands 25 cm behind it.

Table 1. Bat and ball sensor data
Swing	Bat speed (m/s)	Bat on ball (N)	Ball on bat (N)	Ball speed after (m/s)
1	15	8,500	8,500	22
2	20	9,700	9,700	28
3	25	10,900	10,900	34
4 (near handle)	20	7,100	7,100	15

Which statement does Table 1 support?

A. The bat pushed on the ball harder than the ball pushed on the bat.
B. In faster swings, the ball pushed on the bat harder than the bat pushed on it.
C. In each swing, the bat and the ball pushed on each other with equal forces.
D. The two forces matched in Swing 2 but not in the other three swings.