Question

A batsman hits a cricket ball which then rolls on a level ground. After covering a short distance, the ball comes to rest. The ball slows to a stop because
A. the batsman did not hit the ball hard enough.
B. velocity is proportional to the force exerted on the ball.
C. there is a force on the ball opposing the motion.
D. there is no unbalanced force on the ball, so the ball would want to come to rest.

Answer 1

You could think of a similar situation or even your experience while playing cricket. Thereby, you could easily determine if some of the given options are wrong. Also, recall Newton's laws of motion while answering the question.

Complete solution:
In the question, we are told that a ball is rolling down after being hit by a batsman. Also, this ball is going to rest after covering a distance. We are supposed to find the reason among the given options that slows the ball to stop.
You will be able to easily answer this question if you think of your personal experience while playing cricket or any other situation.
You may know that, no matter how hard you hit the ball, the ball will finally go to rest. So we could conclude that the exerted force on the ball has nothing to do with its slowing down and going to rest. So option A and B are not the correct reasons.
Now, by Newton’s law of motion, the object should continue its uniform motion in the absence of an unbalanced force. So, we could also conclude that option D is a wrong statement and thereby not the reason for the given situation.
Thereby, we found that it is due to the presence of an opposing force that the ball slows down and hence coming to rest. This force that opposes the relative motion between two surfaces is commonly called frictional force.

Hence, option C is the correct answer.

Note:
Though the frictional force is an opposing force by nature, we shouldn’t consider it as completely disadvantageous. We should understand that we are able to walk on the ground with the help of this frictional force. Friction allows the car to stay on the road and also the friction in clutch helps in driving.