Sunteți pe pagina 1din 3

Baseball is our national sport, and it also has broad international appeal.

It is by far
the oldest organized professional sport. Its development reflects the history of our
nation, as well our increasing technological sophistication. The application of
physical principles to baseball is considered. Dynamical issues in pitching, hitting,
fielding, and running will be examined.

A Few Important Parameters

The Baseball
Mass: 0.15 kilograms
Diameter: 0.1 meters

The Bat
Single solid piece of hardwood, non-laminated & nbsp
Mass: 0.85 - 1.25 kilograms
Length: 0.80-0.95 meters

Various Speed

Speed of Pitched ball: 30 - 45 meters/sec


Speed of Hit ball: 0 - 60 meters/sec
Rotational speed: (pitcher): 0 - 3000 rpm
Rotational speed: (batter): 0 - 5000 rpm
Speed of runners: up to 10 meters/sec

Various Times
Travel from pitcher to batter: 0.45 - 0.60 sec
Runner from base to base: 3-4 sec
Time of flight of baseball: 0 - 6 sec

Various Distances
Maximum pop-up height: 50 meters
Maximum hit distance: 150 meters
Maximum throw by outfielder: 100 meters

Pitching
The pitcher stands less than 20 meters from the batter, and throws the ball at
speeds of around 40 meters/sec. In that time the ball drops from its "straight line"
path by about 1.2 meters.
Because of the stitches on the baseball there is considerable turbulence affecting its
motion, and it may behave somewhat erratically. The complications in the motion
of the ball arise from the Prandtl Layer of air that moves with the baseball, and
which has a dominating effect on the motion of the ball.
The pitcher may put considerable spin on the baseball, corresponding to about 20
revolutions over its path.
A few pitchers have been able to perfect the knuckleball, which hardly spins at all,
and which drifts somewhat arbitrarily in its motion.

Batting
The batter has about 0.5 seconds to gauge the path of a pitch, and the bat must be
at the right place [within about 1 cm] at the right time [within 0.01 seconds] to
make solid contact.
The bat-ball collision lasts typically for 0.001 seconds and the average force on this
ball is of order 10,000 Newtons, corresponding to a mass of about 1000 kg [or a
ton].
The process of hitting is mysterious, but with God-given quick reflexes and many
years of practice, a few players can learn to hit the ball regularly.
A solidly hit baseball may leave the bat with speeds as great as 60 meters/sec,
much larger than the speeds with which the pitcher typically throws the ball.
The path of a fly ball is strongly influenced by air resistance; in fact, air resistance is
just as important as gravity for its motion.
The ball remains in the air for as long as 5 or 6 seconds, and the outfielder must
decide quickly where they should go to catch the ball, if they can.

Torque
Torque moment or moment of force is the tendency of the force to rotate an object
about an axis or pivot. Measure of the turning force on an object. Define
mathematically as the rate of change of angular moment of an object. The
definition of torque states that one or both moment of inertia of an object are
changing. Moment is the general term used for the tendency of one or more applied
forces to rotate an object about an axis but not necessarily to change the angular
momentum of an object (torque). The direction of the torque can be determined by
using the right hand rule. Unit of torque is Newton meter or Joules per Radian.
Torque is a measure of how much a force acting on an object causes the object to
rotate. The object rotates about an axis which we will called the pivot point. In other
words, torque is the cross product between the distance vector ()
History
The concept of torque also called moment or couple originated with the studies of
Archimedes on levers. The term torque was apparently introduce by James
Thomson.

S-ar putea să vă placă și