The Baseball Of Baseball : America 's Pastime

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Its America’s pastime. Since 1869, the MLB has been the sweetheart of American sports. A requisite to be a true American is to have a conceptual understanding of baseball; the seventh inning stretch, “Take Me Out To The Ball Game,” as well as hotdogs and warm summer nights at the ball park are all favorite memories of American pastime. However, what one might not realize is the extreme physics behind the game. The velocity of the pitch, and degree of the ball exiting the bat, the exit speed, and how an outfielder throws are entailed within the physics of baseball. It is important to understand the physics involved with baseball to grow in understanding and appreciation of the sport.
First off, the knuckle ball. It is called the hardest pitch to hit. A pitch that seemingly floats like a butterfly and then magically drops into the strike zone, dumbfounding the batter and almost always resulting in a strike out. But how is this pitch actually thrown? The name of the pitch essentially entails how the pitch is thrown, the pitcher curls his fingers into his hand, placing the knuckles of his fingers on the ball, and releasing the ball in this manner and fashion. But why does this work? It comes down to the position of the laces. By throwing the ball off the pitcher’s knuckles, the ball exhibits no spin throughout the entire duration of the pitch. This allows different lift forces within the air is passes to exert themselves upon the ball. By doing this, the ball is subject to different planar movements as a result of different lift forces manifesting themselves upon the baseball that is thrown. In a simplistic explanation, this is why a knuckle ball “knuckles” as it is thrown.
Secondly, there every fans favorite part of the game, the ...

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...urages ball trajectories to act as if they were in a vacuum, not as they would act at a place closer to sea level. Finally, another factor that helps in increasing distance is the absence of humidity. By humidity lacking within the general climate of Denver, this also encourages a greater ball travel distance. Much similar to increase in elevation, less humidity means the air is not as dense, providing fewer molecules for the ball to run into, reducing drag and increasing distances.
Upon further investigation, baseball is more than just “One, two, three strikes you’re out,”there is a whole world of physics interacting and exerting itself upon the game, unseen to the human eye. So next time one sees a batter hit a home run off a knuckle ball at Coors Field in Denver, one will have a great appreciation for the physics of the game that came into play within that play.

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