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Re: A INTERESTING QUESTION (fwd)



Joseph Bellina wrote:

I got this question from a local baseball coach. Any advice?

joe

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 10:10:32 -0500
From: John Kovach <jkovach@saintmarys.edu>
To: jbellina@saintmarys.edu
Subject: A INTERESTING QUESTION

Prof. Bellina:
I've been working on a project for this spring and summer for my
softball and baseball squads. We've been experimenting with wood and
aluminum bats, trying to see which one would be the best to use. I set
up a scenerio like this. There are two hitters of equal size and
strength. One hitter uses an aluminum bat, 33" long and weighing 27
ounces. Batter #2, uses a wood bat, 33 " long and weighing 31 ounces.
The hitter with aluminum has a bat speed of 75 mph, the hitter with wood
has a bat speed of 70 mph. They are both facing a pitcher who is
throwing the ball 75 mph. (this is assuming however that because the
aluminum is lighter, one can swing it faster)Given their swings and
other atmospheric conditions are equal......does the ball come off the
aluminum faster or the wood bat and does the ball travel further off
the aluminum or the wood? How would that change if the wood bat hitter
has the same bat speed of the player using the aluminum bat?
I'm not sure if you need any other particulars for this problem,
but if you do please let me know and I'll try to fill in those gaps.

Thanks for the help!!!

John Kovach

Joseph

Check out "The Physics of Baseball", second edition, by Robert Adair,
Sterling Professor of Physics at Yale University. It is published by
HarperPerennial. Specifically, see "The Bat-Ball Collision" on page 71
and "Aberrant Bats, Aluminum Bats" on page 125.

Professor Adair concludes that a batted ball comes off an aluminum bat
much faster and is therefore potentially dangerous to pitchers, whose
reaction times cannot avoid a line drive.

poj