Question

When Babe Ruth hit a homer over the 7.3m -high right-field fence 98m from home plate, roughly what was the minimum speed of the ball when it left the bat? Assume the ball was hit 1.0m above the ground and its path initially made a 38 degree angle with the ground.

Answer 1

Please dumb it down for me too. LOL

Answer 2

The only acceleration here is gravity. Draw a free body diagram:

so... the total distance traveled is this next picture:

The fact that they give you the angle is redundant because you can figure that out with trig. But anyway....
We solve using components with classical motion equations:
\[DeltaX=V _{0}T+.5AT ^{2}\]
\[DeltaY=V _{0}T+.5AT ^{2}\]
Where the acceleration in the x direction is 0 (look at free body diagram) and the acceleration in the y direction is g.

When we reduce using our known information we will have three equations and three unknowns. (The third equation is the one that relates the initial velocity components together.)

Have Fun!