Physics Of Baseball

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Jacob Keck Mrs. Reisbig Honors Biology 17 November 2014 For this project, I have chosen to do this experiment on the physics of baseball. I am interested in doing this project on baseball because I have been playing baseball all my life and I want to learn some of the science and physics behind it. There are many different scientific properties in the baseball world. One property in baseball is reaction time. A 95 mph pitch reaches the plate from the 60 ft. 6in. away mound in less than half a second. All during that time, the batter has to see the pitch, decide its trajectory (ball or strike), notice any spin, decide whether to hit the ball, and if so, swing; all in that split second. However, pitchers use other types of slower pitches…show more content…
In Newton’s third law of motion, he states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For fly balls, there is a gravitational interaction between the baseball and the earth. When the baseball is hit off of the bat, gravity pulls it down. The fielder needs to know how the ball will arc down, so he is able to get under the ball in time to catch it. Newton’s third law doesn’t just apply to fly balls. It also applies to hitting through the bat-ball collision. When the baseball is thrown and hit by the bat, force is applied to both the bat and the ball. Even though the ball seems to get most of the force from the collision since the ball goes through the air while the bat stays in the batter’s hands, the bat gets an equal amount of force from the baseball according to Newton’s third law. That’s why the bat sometimes gets scuffed, dented or even broken from the pitch. It’s also the reason why, when bunting, the ball pushes the bat…show more content…
The curve in the curveball is not an optical illusion and is because of a force called lift. A quote by physics teacher Paul Robinson in an interview for a web article on blogs.kqed.org says “‘when a ball spins it generates greater pressure on one side as it moves through the air than on the other side,’ Robinson said. ‘The difference in pressure is a form of lift. It’s called the Magnus effect.’” The Magnus effect is an explanation for how spherical objects curve in the air. An Encyclopedia Britannica definition at Britannica.com says “The Magnus effect is a particular manifestation of Bernoulli’s theorem: fluid pressure decreases at points where the speed of the fluid increases. In the case of a ball spinning through the air, the turning ball drags some of the air around with it. Viewed from the position of the ball, the air is rushing by on all sides. The drag of the side of the ball turning into the air (into the direction the ball is traveling) retards the airflow, whereas on the other side the drag speeds up the airflow. Greater pressure on the side where the airflow is slowed down forces the ball in the direction of the low-pressure region on the opposite side, where a relative increase in airflow occurs.” For the baseball, the particular spin put on the ball makes it so the higher pressure region around the ball is on top of the ball and the lower pressure at the bottom making the ball

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