Some people may wonder why the baseballs curve when the pitcher throws a curve ball, or maybe why the bat breaks, and how a homerun is hit. Well just know physics has a lot to do with that and more. I will try to explain to you how these things happen and more during this essay. There are many forces that take place in baseball. The pitcher applies forces to a ball, in order to strike out the batter. The pitcher determines the speed and velocity of the ball. The pitcher can make the ball do different and unique things.
For instance a curve ball is one example; the pitcher can apply a type of force to the ball so that it descends just as soon as it gets close to the batter, which messes with the batters mind thinking he will hit it. The pitcher arm acts as if it was lever giving them a certain amount of mechanical advantage which increases his force. When the ball is spinning a curve ball is created. The ball creates less pressure when the faster flowing air is under the ball. This forces the ball to dive or break. Drag forces actually makes baseball. There wouldn’t be any curves, sliders, or knuckle ball without drag forces.
The most important breaking ball and most starting pitchers in MLB is a curve ball. As the pitchers throw the ball, they snap their wrist with a turning motion. The ball gathers up air by its stitching. This causes the ball rotation which creates higher air pressure on a side of the ball. Difference in higher velocity gains more stress on the air gathering around the bottom of the ball. The stress makes air gathering around the ball break away from the surface. When thrown correctly the curveball can make batters look silly. Fastballs are said to be the easiest pitches and they are kind of affected by the Magnus force.
The main pitch of a pitcher is a four-seam fastball. Broken bats are commonplace in a baseball game. The forces between the bat and the baseball are larger than the force on the bat by the player. The velocities and the masses before and after of the bat and ball may be similar to each other through the physical relationship known as the conservation of linear momentum which is the product the mass and velocity of an object, p=mv. After the bat and baseball collide they both have positive velocities. When batting with a heavier ball studies show that it should result in faster hit balls.
The impact between ball and bat is one extremely violent impact. This is because the bat gains a large amount of force on the ball that it causes it to switch directions and gain speed. During the contact the force that the bat applies on the ball is not constant. The mass of the bat is not really involved in the bat, unless the collision occurs at the center of the bat. The ball flattens impact, but when it is connected it only strays on the bat for a couple of centimeters. This means they would only stay in contact for a short period of time. In very little comparison to the ball, a solid wood bat does change its shape just a bit.
Most new metal bats can change shape compared to the ball. Factors that influence how far the ball travels when hit with a bat is the speed of the bat and ball, the mass, and the location of the hit of the ball and bat, etc. When hitting the “sweet spot” of the ball you can often fell a feel some type of reaction or not at all with your hands. There will be a decrease of the bat from the energy exchange. Then when the ball and bat come in contact you feel as if you didn’t hit the ball. When you hit the “sweet spot”, the bat will often move straight back.
The barrel end wants to come around in the direction, when you hit to the right of the “sweet spot”. This is what causes the loss of the exchange of energy. This is only because the velocity of the bat that was transferred to the ball was much less. This would cause you to waste energy. Hitting the ball on its “sweet spot”, it’s going to go straight off the bat. A “sweet spot” is indeed moveable. The “sweet spot” is moveable because it is the center of percussion of a bat. Depending on how much the batter holds the bat he can move the “sweet spot”. Also the manufacturer of the bat can move the “sweet spot” on how it is designed.
The locations of the bats “sweet spot” won’t change much. People who have a healthy piece of aluminum and timber should strive for more bat speed. People should really have time to apply a large energy input because the ball is so slow in relationship to everything else. You can still get a good velocity by handling a heavier bat. You can wait for the ball to build up a huge amount of energy to put into the heavier bat. They would probably obtain the same amount velocity that you could with lighter bat in baseball. Using a heavier bat could be an advantage in slow pitches. You cannot normally obtain the velocity with a larger bat.
Some data says that an aluminum bat can hit further than a wood bat. Hits will go better of the “sweet spot” with aluminum than wood. Batters would be able to get more speed out of an aluminum bat that weights exactly the same in overall weight as a wood bat. Initial velocity is what determines the ball is going to travel. Say for instance, if a fastball was really fired at the batter, it is going to come back even faster. Two things a batter should strive to do when at the plate are maximum velocity and control. You should want to get that maximum speed and at the same time hit the ball on it “sweet spot”.
If you want to hit the ball in place physics do come into play. This is because you aren’t probably looking for the maximum distance. You would be more interested in being able to pick the spot where you are going to hit the ball and also on controlling. In the future materials for the bat will change. Baseball is another sport that revolves around timing. The balance point of the bat is important. The balance point is important because the center of percussion is affected by the way the substance is distributed in the bat, and the center of balance represents one factor in how its material is distributed.
This really is not as important as the center of percussion. You have to hold the bat parallel to the ground in your hand, in order to find the COP on the bat. The COP moves closer to the fat end, if you choke up on the bat. As you do normally when playing a baseball game make sure you hold it at the same place. The COP is located about six to eight inches from the fat end, when you hold a bat with your hands at the bottom. Many people believe that it is easier to feel the push if you hold the bat with only one hand. You can change the position of the COP by changing your hands position on the bat changes where the pivot point is.
You don’t often feel a push or pull as the bat tries to spin, when the ball hits the COP. The stationary point coincides with where your top hand is, when you hit a ball at the COP. The stick wants to move straight backwards, and also wants to rotate around its center when you hit it off center. Some of your energy of you swing goes into moving the bat in your hands. This happens every time you hit a ball at a point that’s not the COP of your bat. More of the bats energy can be given to the ball. This happens if less of the bat’s energy goes into your hands. The bat’s handle push back on or pull out of your hands.
This is the tendency to rotate. As you can see in this essay that I explained to you about physics in baseball, there is a lot of physics to do in baseball. There may be more than what I explained to you but, I choose to give some of the main points of physics in baseball. Some of the characteristics of physics that I explained to you were time, rotating, weight, distance, energy, speed, velocity, balance, mass, motion, mechanics, and last but certainly not least there are many forces involved in baseball. Now, as you see baseball isn’t just all fun and games there were large amounts of physics involved.
