The Ball Player: The Physics Of Baseball

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Every ball player, whether they realize it or not, is a mathematician or physicist. Baseball, the infamous favorite pass time of the United States, is full of physics laws and principals. It is easy to think that all these players do is throw around a ball, occasionally hit it, run around some bases, and make a great catch. However, baseball has many underlying complex principals that can be explained through the laws physics. It encompasses all three planes of motion with players exhibiting the action of throwing, hitting, and fielding. It is through physics that most ball players enhance their skills and learn to be known as one of the best. Strike one, two, and three. Throwing a baseball is a fairly easy task, but throwing speed and accuracy …show more content…

Hitting a baseball perfectly is considered to be hitting the “sweet spot” resulting in few vibrations. This is known in terms of physics as the center of percussion. This is the point where you receive the most energy exchange when hitting the ball. Coming into contact with other ends of the bat actually wastes energy because the bat is absorbing more than it should; resulting in a hit that is not as powerful and stinging of the hands. There are times that due to the ball being poorly hit that a players bat can break. The wood material cannot take the strain of the collision. Therefore, finding the center of percussion can be very difficult. Each time you pick up a bat, the center of percussion changes due to the change in location and …show more content…

It takes half of a second for the player to realize if the ball was hit to the left or the right, but if it is hit right at them, the trajectory will not be clear for a whole 2 seconds. The speed and altitude are visible during the first second of impact. The outfielder then only has 3 seconds to be able to determine where the ball will land. In catching the ball, the players must position themselves in a way that will allow them to complete the task successfully. The ball travels in the shape of a parabola due to the force of gravity. A player needs to position themselves at half the distance of the maximum height in order to successfully complete the catch. When the ball is traveling it displays the properties of force and trajectory. To meet the trajectory, the player runs to ensure that it remains linear and relative t the horizontal cancellation. This is called the linear acceleration cancellation. In contrast, however, sometimes players utilize optical acceleration cancellation. (Hardball Times) In this scenario, players run either toward or away from the ball to cancel perception of the vertical acceleration. To aid in making a successful catch, an out fielder watches the pitch carefully, notes the batters swing and angle, to allow the time needed in order to make a successful

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