The Apex Is Not a Pause

You'll learnthat at the apex velocity is zero but acceleration is not, read off synced motion graphs.

A ball leaves your hand at 20 m/s, straight up. Four seconds of story, three kinematic equations to tell it — each one an integral of a single assumption — and one graph point almost everyone misreads. When the assumption breaks, the integrals keep working.

8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · v3

FREE-FALL LAB

Before you start

What you're looking at

A ball thrown straight up at 20 m/s beside two synced graphs: position-time on top, velocity-time below, with markers riding both curves.

The question

At the very top of the flight, what are the ball's velocity and acceleration?

Watch for

The apex, where velocity reaches zero but acceleration does not — the trap is answering both zero.

What the symbols mean

Left strip is the real motion; top graph is position vs time, bottom is velocity vs time; up is positive, g = 10 m/s².

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