If it’s thrown straight up, I see a simple argument that it will take longer to fall than to rise, but none showing the reverse. A driven golf ball would be a more ambiguous problem. The same argument as for the baseball applies, but there is the extra effect of the backspin operating in the opposite direction.
If you throw a baseball into the air, it will take longer to reach its maximum height than it will to fall the same distance back toward the ground.
Or will it? ;)
I’m not sure I know how to throw a ball so it begins ascending at ground level.
You can bounce it :-)
Good point. Fixed.
If it’s thrown straight up, I see a simple argument that it will take longer to fall than to rise, but none showing the reverse. A driven golf ball would be a more ambiguous problem. The same argument as for the baseball applies, but there is the extra effect of the backspin operating in the opposite direction.