Last night while watching one of the best opening games of a World Series, I was introduced to a relatively new piece of TV technology which literally made me shout (with joy). The ultra high speed camera has been outfitted with IR capability, and they set it to very high contrast (B&W). They used it mainly to show the foul tips that would hit the batter or the catcher. What made me shout was what would happen to the ball when it was hit by the bat. It lit up (in IR) like a light bulb being turned on--exactly what it should do, but it's always exciting to see the experiment. Fairly quickly, it faded, but when it hit a player, the spot of impact would light up also. This is some HOT (or cool?) technology.
They were able to use it to show that a hit ball really did hit TX batter Adrian Beltre on the foot before it made its way to the 3rd baseman who threw to 1st for an out. This is where truth and reality depart (in some way): truth --the ball hit the batter's foot so it was truthfully a foul ball; reality -- the umpire missed the foul, the ball was called fair, and the out was recorded. Umpires are part of the game, plus the 3rd base umpire did NOT see compelling evidence to consult. Umpires calls determine the course of the game. I like the technology, but I don't want to slow the game with instant replay.
I hope that we can get these videos for our physics classes to show the thermal energy reality of collisions.