An Interesting “Physics of Baseball” Video
KQED, a Bay Area public television station, has produced a nice video overview of the basic physics involved in pitching and hitting. With help from the UC-Berkeley baseball team and staff, physicists from the San Francisco Exploratorium demonstrate just how a curveball curves over the plate and how the sweet spot on the bat hits the ball farther.
While it’s not very in-depth, it is a nice introduction to the subject of the physics of baseball. It also includes some interesting clips of Barry Zito, Rich Harden, Chad Bradford and Tim Hudson having their pitching motions studied using motion-tracking technology in a lab. Sadly, the physicists didn’t find out how to keep Rich Harden from hurting himself every three starts…
If you’re interested in the subject, I’d highly recommend Dr. Robert K. Adair’s book, “The Physics of Baseball“.
Also from KQED, a video demonstrating just how hard it is to hit a home run. In fact, on paper, physics says it’s impossible. Though they don’t tell you why that is…