Want To Get Kids Interested In Physics?

[Subdeacon Joe]

BASEBALL!

 

http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/

[Subdeacon Joe]

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/baseball.html

 

Bounce Factor = q = (ball exit speed) / (incident ball speed)

q is also called the apparent coefficient of restitution or ACOR. q varies from about zero near the tip of the bat to about 0.2 or 0.3 further along the barrel, and needs to be measured for any given bat since it is usually too hard to calculate. So,

 Ball exit speed = q*v_in        where v_in = incident ball speed.

2. If the ball is at rest (when striking a ball off a T ) then

Ball exit speed = (1 + q)V       where V = bat speed at impact point just before the impact.

3. If the bat approaches a ball incident at speed v_in then

Ball exit speed = (1 + q)V + q*v_in

The impact point 2 cm from the tip of the Easton bat is a dead spot where the ball doesn't bounce at all, so q = 0. However, when the bat strikes the ball at the dead spot then the ball exit speed = V = speed of bat just before the collision.

[Blackwater 53393]

And then you have the problem of hitting a round ball squarely with a round bat!!  
 

SOLID GEOMETRY!!

 

 

 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

26 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

And then you have the problem of hitting a round ball squarely with a round bat!!  
 

SOLID GEOMETRY!!

 

 

 

 

 ....... big bang theory ?   

[Alpo]

Robert Heinlein, The Rolling Stones.

 

The Stone family lives in the Moon. Mr. Stone is trying to convince the 16-year-old twin boys that they need to go to Earth for a while, and they say they have been there and they did not like it.

 

>Mr. Stone brushed it aside. “Two weeks you were there - not time enough to find out what the place is like. You'll love it, once you get used to it. Learn to ride horseback, play baseball, see the Ocean."

“A lot of impure water,” Castor answered.

“Horses are to eat.”

“Take baseball,” Castor continued. “It's not practical. How can you figure a one-g trajectory and place your hand at the point of contact in the free-flight time between bases? We're not miracle men.”

“I played it.”

“But you grew up in a one-g field; you've got a distorted notion of physics. Anyhow, why would we want to learn to play baseball? When we come back, we wouldn't be able to play it here. Why, you might crack your hhelmet."<

[Trailrider #896]

Twenty-three year old grandson works for a minor-league baseball team doing "analytics".  He places special cameras all over the place, recording bat speed, ball speed off the bat, angle, etc.  Then goes "home" to his room and stays up  until 2 am analyzing that stuff! Gets to know all the players, including some who will eventually wind up in the majors.   Yeah, those "Luneys would have a tough time adapting to 1g and aerodynamic drag on Earth.  I do wonder how they would pitch a curve ball on the Moon with no atmosphere to act on the spin and the stitching.  

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

8 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

Twenty-three year old grandson works for a minor-league baseball team doing "analytics".  He places special cameras all over the place, recording bat speed, ball speed off the bat, angle, etc.  Then goes "home" to his room and stays up  until 2 am analyzing that stuff! Gets to know all the players, including some who will eventually wind up in the majors.   Yeah, those "Luneys would have a tough time adapting to 1g and aerodynamic drag on Earth.  I do wonder how they would pitch a curve ball on the Moon with no atmosphere to act on the spin and the stitching.  

And instead of Denver’s thin air they have no air.

[Sedalia Dave]

Only pitch I was ever good at. The physics of which is still being debated. Why the knuckleball takes such a knucklehead path

 

 

So cool wo watch in slow motion

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

34 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Only pitch I was ever good at. The physics of which is still being debated. Why the knuckleball takes such a knucklehead path

 

 

So cool wo watch in slow motion

 

 

 

I've read that catchers HATE that pitch since on one knows where it will go.

[Smoken D]

One of my better pitches back in the day. Fast ball, knuckle ball. Catchers nightmare as much as the batters. Loved it back in those days.

[Blackwater 53393]

Bob Ueker says the knuckle ball is no trouble at all to catch, “I just walk to the backstop and pick it up!”

 

My son threw the knuckle ball for his feature pitch in high school. The head coach was a former minor league catcher and HATED the knuckle ball. Hatfield seldom got to pitch, (he was a frequent starter at first and third) but would occasionally get to the mound if a game was out of hand.

 

In one such game, during a tournament playoff game, he baffled a powerhouse team for three innings.  As the players and coaches left the field after the game, the chief umpire asked our coach why he waited so long to “get that kid into the game”!  The coach could only show his embarrassment as the entire team and all of the parents overheard!

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Bob Ueker says the knuckle ball is no trouble at all to catch, “I just walk to the backstop and pick it up!”

 

"Former American League umpire Ron Luciano once said, "Like some cult religion that barely survives, there has always been at least one but rarely more than five or six devotees throwing the knuckleball in the big leagues . . . Not only can't pitchers control it, hitters can't hit it, catchers can't catch it, coaches can't coach it and most pitchers can't learn it. The perfect pitch."

 

Mr. Ueker also said, "“Catching Niekro’s knuckleball was great. I got to meet a lot of important people. They all sit behind home plate.”

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

I will never understand the eye-hand coordination it takes to hit a ball thrown by a major league pitcher.  That just doesn’t seem humanly possible.

[Smoken D]

4 hours ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

I will never understand the eye-hand coordination it takes to hit a ball thrown by a major league pitcher.  That just doesn’t seem humanly possible.

 

Keep your eye on the ball. The bat is only an extension of your arm tied to your hand. You can catch a ball, you can hit the ball. Keep your eye on the ball and meet it with your bat. Always worked for me.