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5000 fps Camera Reveals the Physics of Baseball

Posted by Soulskill on from the let's-go-tigers dept.

concealment sends this quote from an article at The Physics of Baseball "This clip from Game 4 shows Marco Scutaro hitting the ball right near the tip of the barrel. The amplitude of the resulting vibration is so large that the bat breaks and the ball weakly dribbles off the bat. Note that the bat splinters toward the pitcher. The reason is that when the ball hits the barrel tip, the barrel of the bat bends backward toward the catcher and the center of the bat bulges forward toward the pitcher. That is the natural shape of the fundamental vibrational mode of the bat. Since the fracture occurs near the center which is bulging outward, that is how the bat splinters, as the wood fibers on the pitcher side of the bat are stretched to the breaking point. If the ball had impacted the bat near the center, the center would have bulged toward the catcher, as in the Yadier Molina clip. Had the vibrational amplitude been strong enough in the Molina case, the bat would have splintered toward the catcher."

7 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    First pitch!

  2. Isn't the game long enough already? by lewscroo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, way to make the game orders of magnitude longer.

    1. Re:Isn't the game long enough already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Baseball: (n) A game invented by people who thought cricket was too boring, but who then somehow managed to create a game that was just as long, just as involved, just as complex, and just as boring.

    2. Re:Isn't the game long enough already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      baseball, even more boring than fucking golf.

      Regular golf is indeed boring..... ......but this variation you speak of .... tell me more about this "fucking golf". It sounds like an intriguing sport.

      Is it televised?

    3. Re:Isn't the game long enough already? by MrNaz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yea, I think it's called C-SPAN.

      --
      I hate printers.
  3. Relativistic Baseball by Tsunayoshi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Would love to see some slow-mo pics of this, but I think we need more than 5000fps to see it:

    http://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

    --
    "Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live." - Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"
  4. Could not use the Yankees by transcender · · Score: 5, Funny

    The author originally wanted to use the New York Yankees as the focus... However, he was unable to capture enough examples of Yankee batters making contact with a baseball during the ALCS to complete the study.