Applying physics to baseball
Gravity- Gravity is used all the time in baseball. Gravity brings the ball back down to the Earth when a fly ball is hit, it keeps the players on the ground and the ball when a ground ball is hit. This also makes you have to throw the ball at a higher speed to get it to your target. Without gravity you wouldn't be able to pitch or play baseball correctly.
Weight- Weight has many things to do with baseball. Weight determines how fast you can run like a bigger person isn't going to run as fast as a skinnier person. The weight of the baseball bat has a lot to do too. If the bat is too heavy you won't be able to swing it fast enough to hit the ball. Also, if the bat is too light you won't have enough head weight on the bat to help the ball go farther. Also, with the pitching and fielding aspect of it. If there was no weight then the ball would only be attracted to the ground by gravity so everything would fall at the same rate beside the air friction. Lift- Lift works mostly with pitching, but also happens in the field. Every time the baseball is thrown and it is slowly rising lift is acting on it. Also, whenever you hit a ball and it is a line drive that is slowly rising this is also lift acting on the ball making it rise. Drag- Drag happens in baseball when the ball is in the air after it is hit and after it is thrown or pitched. Drag is why the ball slows down and doesn't stay the same speed forever. Drag is also why when you hit a line drive or a popup that it doesn't keep on going and that it slowly falls. Drag does this because it push the opposite way the ball is going causing it to slow down. Friction- Friction happens in many scenarios of a baseball game. It happens when you throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball, and when the ball is flying through the air or rolling on the ground. Friction happens in all of these scenarios. The laces on the baseball and your fingers are cause friction which will result in the ball rotating. The ball and the bat cause friction when the ball makes contact with the bat. You would never think that friction is happening in almost everything in baseball, even when you run. Rotation of the Baseball- The rotation of the baseball has a lot to do with mostly pitching, but it makes all the difference in baseball itself. The rotation makes the ball do different things. Like the rotation on a fastball is different from the curveballs rotation. Speed/Velocity- Speed/Velocity has a lot to do with baseball. If you don't have enough speed/velocity on a pitch, hit, run or throw you won't do well. If you pitch without much speed/velocity it will be hit easily. Also, if you throw without much speed/velocity the runner would get there faster than you and if you don't hit and then run with speed/velocity first off you won't be able to hit the ball unless it is really slow, second of all even if you did hit it you would get out because you weren't fast enough. Acceleration- Acceleration is a major part of baseball. Like in running, when you are trying to steal a base or get another base on your hit you need to be able to accelerate. If you don't have high acceleration then, no matter how fast you are you might not get that stolen base or extra base. Also, with pitching and throwing. The ball needs to be able to accelerate so by the time it gets to the batter or bag it is going at a high rate of speed so it will either make the batter get strikes on them or beat out a runner to get an out. If you don't have high acceleration it will be a lot harder to pitch, throw, and steal bases especially. |
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