Kinematics can answer all of the following questions EXCEPT:

• A. How far did the baseball fly?
• B. In what direction did the baseball travel?
• C. What was the maximum speed of the baseball?
• D. Why does a baseball drop to the ground after being thrown?

Answer: (D)

Kinematics describes motion by examining how position, distance, direction, speed, and time relate to each other. Because of that, it can tell you how far the baseball flew (its displacement or range), in what direction it traveled (the trajectory or path angle), and what its maximum speed was along the flight (the peak instantaneous speed). The question about why the baseball drops after being thrown asks for the cause of the motion—the force that produces the downward acceleration. Kinematics can describe the resulting motion under gravity (how far and how long it takes to fall, the velocity during the fall), but it does not explain the underlying reason gravity acts. That explanatory role belongs to dynamics. So while you can model the drop’s motion with kinematics, the “why” behind the drop isn’t something kinematics alone answers.