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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."
Which link is most pertinent? Must I follow them all? Must I RATFA?
Patiently awaiting Curt Schilling's comment... ;)
:wq
Now I can read how they do something I will be never be able to do. Maybe I can impress chicks with teh knowledge of this. Oh, wait...
Evolution or ID?
discussing the ECONOMICS of baseball? A breif list of the salaries of the overweight, corn-fed, ball-chuckers oughtta be interesting.
"If you build it, he will come".
The law by which Red Sox and Cubs are repelled by the World Series and especially by the prospect of each other's presence in it.
The Goat Rule
The Curse of the Bambino
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Since it was a perfect game, it was missing the trajectory (batting) half.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
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.
You might be interested then in The Physics of Hockey by Alain Hache. I bought it last year and found it interesting. he covers the basics from skating and stopping, to slapshots, chechs and saves. I think he even covered some of the thermo for making an ice rink.
Perfect game means no one reached base. You could actually pitch a perfect game in 27 pitches, all first pitch hits. This is why pitch count doesn't matter.
Less on the physics than the effects of that physics, from the New Yorker last week; here's a general audience article on knuckleball physics, an interview with Robert K. Adair, and finally, another physicist, Joel Hollander, who works on baseball: if you look at the master's theses list, you'll see one on the physics of pitching.
I read a newspaper article once about how outfielders catch fly-balls. Basically, the ball follows an arc in the air. It's parabolic (which is fairly obvious). The way a fielder judges how far or back they need to be to catch the ball is what is interesting. The fielder will move so the ball will always appear to stay in one spot (and just get larger), even while it is on its descent. As long as this apparent motion is kept, the ball should go right into the glove. If the ball appears to move down, the fielder must move forward. If the ball appears to move up, then the fielder needs to go back. If the fielder sees any curve to the path, then he/she needs to move to the sides to "straighten" out the path. A really interesting read, wish I could find a URL w/ it.
> God, baseball. The most mind-numbing sport in the world.
You must come from a part of the world where they don't have Cricket.
(Note to Mods. I used to like Cricket, then the SCG banned full strength beer and installed seats in Bay 13. What were they thinking?)
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
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.
For an object to accelerate, it's 'speed' does not need to change... only it's velocity needs to change! Velocity is a vector quantity, so it has both a direction and a rate of motion attached to it.
Therefore, an object can be moving at a constant speed, but as long as it's 'direction' is changing, it is accelerating.
So a satellite that's orbiting the earth at a constant speed, is constantly accelerating since it's direction is constantly changing.
Caleb
Baseball is the "geekiest" of the 4 major (US) sports. The statistics tracked in baseball dwarf any other sport. Stat analysis is a integral part of baseball.
What other sport do you have stats like: Batting average with runners in scoring position, two outs, late innings, versus a right handed pitcher.
Baseball stats scream "geek".
Casual Games/Downloads
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
"baseball, baseball game, ball - a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of 9 players; teams take turns at bat trying to score run; "he played baseball in high school"; "there was a baseball game on every empy lot"; "there was a desire for National League ball in the area"; "play ball!"
Ok.. If you don't know what baseball is, raise your hand and Tommy will come over and hit you on the head with a tackhammer because you are a RETARD!
Hmmm.
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.
George: Guys, hitting is not about muscle. It's simple physics. Calculate the velocity, v, in relation to the trajectory, t, in which g, gravity, of course remains a constant. (Hits a home run) It's not complicated.
Jeter: Now who are you again?
George: George Costanza, assistant to the traveling secretary.
Williams: Are you the guy who put us in that Ramada in Milwaukee?
George: Do you wanna talk about hotels, or do you wanna win some ball games?
Jeter: We won the World Series.
George: In six games.
Try to understand the math involved to do this.
(Link goes to footage of Randy Johnson hitting a bird on a fastball).
This isn't math - this is Chaos Theory!
"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...
:-)
Whenever I'm curious about sports, I head straight to Slashdot too.
I don't see any way that media coverage affects a perfect game. And hitting talent being thinned should be canceled by the increase in population.
By the way, Nolan Ryan pitched seven no-hitters, which is an unmatched feat, but he never threw a perfect game. A perfect game has no walks as well as no hits.
Pitching has a lot to do with physics, true. But I'd say it has much more to do with psychology. It is, after all, the most difficult task of a pitcher to second-guess what the batter is expecting the pitch to be.
-3Suns
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The Revolution will be Slashdotted
It's because there are so many different numbers to compare, and that these numbers compare very well from generation to generation. You have BA, ERA, OBS, OPS, RBI, Wins, Saves, WHIP, Home Runs, etc. You can also use these individual statistics to predict victories for a team. It's harder to do such a statistical anaylisis on the other sports. Plus, baseball has such a long season and has been around for so long most of the statistical oddities have been worked out.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
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.