1839 Abner Doubleday: The Physics Of Baseball

In 1839 Abner Doubleday invented a game of physics that he called baseball (A & E Television Networks 1996-2014). Baseball is made up of physics. From hitting the ball to catching, fielding or pitching it. Physics is a needed to make these things happen. Without physics the game that people have grown to love would be nothing. The physics of baseball are very interesting. In baseball pitching probably uses the most amount of physics. The different pitches that a pitcher throws involve physics. Even the simplest pitch, the fastball, uses physics. The fastball is used to surprise the hitter with a fast pitch. The pitcher must put backspin on the ball in order for the pitch to work correctly. There are two ways a pitcher grips a fastball, the

A batter has to swing the bat at the exact trajectory to hit the ball. This takes a lot of concentration. When the batter hits the ball on the sweet spot the ball goes far. The sweet spot is the best spot to hit the ball. When the ball hits the sweet spot the vibration of the bat decreases which gives the max energy to the ball making it travel far (Real World Physics Problems 2009- 2014) If the baseball does not hit the sweet spot there is a lot of vibration in the bat and cause the ball to not travel as far. The way the bat is made has a big role in how effective it is. If it is made out of aluminum then it will have a better pop to it. If it is made out of wood then it will not have as much life to it. The batter much be aware of what pitch the pitcher is throwing. If the pitchers throws a curve the batter must swing lower than the ball seems to be coming. Batters only have a quarter of a second to see where the ball is coming, how fast it is coming, see what pitch it is, and swing (Discovery Communications 2014). For example, if the pitch throws a 90 MPH pitch then it will reach the plate in .400 milliseconds (Discovery Communications 2014). The first .100 milliseconds are for the batter to see the ball and send the image to the brain. Then .75 milliseconds are needed for the hitter to calculate speed and location of the pitch. The batter needs an additional .50 milliseconds to decide where to swing the bat. The batter then

You stop the ball with your glove. According to Newton’s Laws there must be a force that acts upon a moving object to stop it. Which makes the glove the force, along with gravity, that acts upon the ball to make it stop. Everything that goes on while catching a baseball is physics. In order to catch the ball the player must calculate the trajectory of where the ball is going to go (Pro.Corbis.com). They must also calculate the vertical and lateral velocity of the ball (Discovery Communications 2014). It takes ½ second for a player to see if the ball is going to the left or to the right. If the fly ball is hit right at the player then the it takes the player a full two seconds to find the trajectory of the ball (Discovery Communications 2014). This is because at the first few seconds of flight the height and distance cannot be calculated. This means the player only has three more seconds to get under the ball and catch it (Discovery Communications 2014). The ball has trajectory and force in itself. Along with a glove adding padding to your hand, it absorbs the force put out by the ball. This lets your hand not hurt as bad or bruise. The glove is able to do this because it has a greater surface area than your hand would have if a player tried to catch the ball barehanded. Ultimately decreasing the force exerted by the ball. This makes it possible for a player to catch a ball traveling up to 120 MPH without breaking bones in the hand