PhysicsLAB Amusing Problems
The Baseball Game

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It's that time of the year for the minor-league baseball playoffs to begin. Dr. J has been invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the hometown team. They wanted someone who would best represent their league (the Bush League). Dr. J wasn't exactly impressed with the way he was treated. For example, they decided that the best place for the press to interview him was in the bull pen. After a couple of his famous quotations, they moved him out to the foul line. Following the interview, he was taken to his seat and presented with the key to the batter's box. Finally, he was given the ball with which he was to throw the first pitch. Dr. J examined the ball closely. There seamed to be something wrong with it, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Little did he know that his archrivals, the members of SAP, had slipped in a ball made of superball material. Dr. J and the hometown catcher were separated by a distance of 10 meters. The catcher, thinking Dr. J was never going to throw the ball, began walking toward Dr. J the instant he threw the ball. The ball bounced off the catcher's glove back to Dr. J, bounced off Dr. J back to the catcher's mitt, and so on until the catcher reached Dr. J and the ball was trapped between the two.

If the catcher walked toward Dr. J at a rate of 1 m/sec and the ball traveled at a speed of 14 m/sec, what was the total distance the ball traveled back and forth before being trapped?

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