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The Physics of Baseball
beatleadam writes "After seeing Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks pitch a perfect game (coverage here), I searched Slashdot in the hopes of reading more about what the Slashdot readers thought of this feat of athleticism and science and to learn more about the physics of baseball (More information to be found here and here). As nothing was posted, I submit for your viewing pleasure a "course" in the Physics of Baseball and the subtle science that is pitching."
Ask any Red Sox fan about baseball, they will tell you laws of physics do not apply as the Bambino curse is the ONLY law in the land of Boston Red Sox :)
As a sidenote, watch the movie Still We Believe for an inside view of how Boston fans related to the Boston Red Sox.
And the only people who can really relate to us are Chicago Cubs fans.
Nope. That would be a sort of Sidd Finch Zen ultra-perfect game. In The Curious Case of Sidd Finch, the title character, an American brought up on a Buddhist monastery who pitches 130 mph fast balls, pitches one game: 80 strikes. He walks off the mound before throwing the last strike to complete the game, as a kind of Zen gesture.
The most interesting physics phenomenon in hockey has got to be the slapshot. Watch one in slow motion, and you'll see the shooter strike the ice with the blade of his stick several inches before the puck. As the motion continues, the stick bends backwards, building up tension that is released on the follow-through. Together with a wrist-roll that keeps the blade in contact with the puck for a longer period of time, you get a tremendous transfer of energy that launches a 100-mph whirling dervish at the net. The most amazing thing is the aim that top snipers achieve while doing all this.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Mike Cameron on the Mets does it differently. He's trained himself since a very early age to see the ball off the bat and then estimate where it will land. He then runs as fast as he can to that spot, and lo and behold the ball is there for him. He doesn't actually watch the ball in flight, but he knows where it will land quicker than other outfielders. That's why he's far and away the best centerfielder (and outfielder in general) in baseball.
I love the Adair book except that he got the slider wrong. A slider is thrown like a football -- it should have a tight spiral the axis of rotation of which is down and away from batters (assuming righty on righty). Hitters are told to look for a "red dot" (seen at the near end of the rotational axis) in order to spot an incoming slider.