Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
This is obviously a pretty complicated problem.In fact, for a slowly spinning, slowly
pitched *smooth* ball, the curve can break the opposite way as the
air flow may be laminar on one side and turbulent on the other.
The mythology is enhanced! What speed must the ball move (and spin)
so that the airflow becomes laminar? To what precision must this
condition be established and maintained?
And what do physicists do when confronted with a "pretty complicated
problem"? Give up!? Let's have a bash at it and see why this is not a
credible possibility.
This problem is difficult. It is also complicated. The answer is
well known, however, and that should be a guide to tell us whether we
are modelling it reasonably or not. The glib "explanations" in terms
of the Bernoulli effect are unsatisfying and unedifying in addition
to being incorrect. I can't find the Hecht explanation of the curve
ball which was cited as 98% correct and I'd like to have that page
number again (I have the Hecht books). We are *not* all agreed, though
I may be a very small minority, but at least I've done a calculation!
Leigh