What does baseball look like inside? How can you improve your skills by understanding the physics of baseball? This should be a question every baseball player wants to know.
The core of a baseball is a cork ball wrapped in a rubber layer, about the size of a table tennis ball. The outside is tightly wrapped with a thick layer of wool thread, and the outermost part is the leather and stitching we see!
In this blog, Galileo Sports - trusted globally for high-quality materials and durable baseball cage - will take you to explore the deep physics behind baseball, understanding and applying the principles will make your baseball level soar.
Are you ready to exploring baseball Principles of physics? Let’s go!
The phenomenon described by Bernhard's law means that the faster the flow rate of the gas, the lower the pressure, and the gas will flow from a place with a high pressure to a place with a low pressure. Like the ball in the picture, due to the rotation, the speed of the upper block is lower than that of the lower block, so the pressure is smaller than that of the lower block.
The ball will float upward, so when the rotation direction is opposite, the ball will fall very much. It sounds very easy to say, but actually throwing it away is completely different! And with the improvement of baseball technology, the change ball also has multiple changes. In addition to the above-mentioned vertical change ball, there are also horizontal change balls due to different release methods, and even finger balls that do not rotate very much and are unstable. etc.
The changing ball is divided into two types based on the concept of mechanics
The ball is round, because the ball is not made of 100% uniform material. The center of gravity of the ball will definitely not be at the center of the shape (center of mass), and there will be a slight error. When the ball rotates one circle, the ball's center of rotation depends on the time factor. The centroids will be at the same point. When an object is affected by an external force, its center of gravity will move in the direction of the external force. If the ball is moving forward and does not rotate, the ball's center of gravity will move in the forward direction.
The finger-flicking ball we see on TV almost doesn’t rotate. In fact, it still rotates a little. This little bit of rotation will cause the center of gravity to rotate and change its position. If the forward force is very small, the ball will move towards the center of gravity in an instant. The force, and the position of the center of gravity will also constantly change, causing the ball to move left, right, up and down.
In fact, the weight of the ball depends on the speed of the hitter's swing to the hitting point. Pitchers with heavy ball quality are generally tall or have good body coordination.
If a pitcher with tall hands and long hands has the same arm rotation speed (Rpm) when throwing as a pitcher with short hands, the ball speed (tangential movement speed) of the pitcher will be faster.
A pitcher with good whole-body coordination uses all the power available to all parts of the body. If compared with a pitcher who only uses hand power to throw, the speed of the ball (tangential motion speed) must be faster when the arm rotation speed (Rpm) is the same when throwing. quick.
Compared with ordinary hitters, the timing of releasing the bat is based on the visual reaction of the pitcher's arm rotation. When the pitcher's arm rotation speed (Rpm) is the same but the ball speed is faster than the reaction, it causes the so-called bat release too slowly, so the ball Of course it won't hit far, this is what is called a heavy ball.
Usually there are two opinions about tail strength.
The first is the speed difference between the speed at which the ball enters the strike zone minus the speed at which the ball was released.
The second is the change in the fastball entering the strike zone.
Blue curve :0.4 seconds to home plate at approximately 160 km/hr
Red curve :0.5 seconds to home plate at approximately 130 km/hr
Generally speaking, most of them refer to the second type. In fact, the rotation speed of the ball when the straight ball is released is almost the same as that of the changing ball. It is just that the forward force of the straight ball is larger and the change is not obvious. Let's make a chart. The vertical axis is from the ball to the home plate. The horizontal axis is the deviation of the ball from the release direction. It can be seen that the faster the ball speed, the more obvious the curvature of the curve is. This means that although the ball's flight path is exactly the same, the faster the ball speed, the greater the visual change of the ball.
Even so, the spin force of a straight ball is still different from each pitcher's shooting habits. Generally, high-pressure pitchers will produce tail power that floats upward, 3/4 pitches will produce tail power that drills into the inside corner of the right-hand hitter, and low-shoulder pitchers will It will produce a downward tail force.
When a left-hand pitcher faces a left-handed batter, he throws the ball from the inside corner of the left-hand batter to the outside corner of the left-hand batter.
Brown circle: Swing range
Green: Path of the ball
Red line segment: The area where the ball may be hit
(A) A left-handed hitter faces a low-shouldered right-hand pitcher.
(B) A right-hand hitter faces a low-shoulder right-hand pitcher.
(C) A left-handed hitter faces a left-handed pitcher.
(D) A right-handed batter faces a left-handed pitcher.
Such a ball not only creates the visual impression for the batter that the ball first moves toward him and then moves away from him, but more importantly, the ball and the swing range of the ball are likely to hit the ball. reduce. The relatively low-shoulder side pitch mainly uses the outside corner change-up ball of the right-hand hitter as the main weapon. For the right-hand hitter, the hitting range is very small, but for the left-hand hitter, the hitting range is very large and can easily hit the ball.
How to turn around and ask why you don’t say [right-handers are afraid of left-hand shots, or right-handers are afraid of low-shoulder shots?
This should be said that most of the pitches are right-handed, just like the catcher is afraid of fast legs, there is no need to emphasize this point!
Wrong!!! It should be said that the greater the power, the farther you hit.
According to F=ma Newton’s second law of motion: (assuming that the weight of the bat is the same as the speed of the ball thrown)
The weight of the bat is [m], and the greater the force acting on the bat, the greater the acceleration [a] will be.
If the swing speed is fast and the force acting on the bat is greater only in the first instant, then it is just the speed but not the acceleration that makes it impossible to hit the ball far.
Whether the ball is hit far or not determines the amount of acceleration the ball generates due to the force acting on the ball through the bat at the moment the bat contacts the ball. The greater the force [F], the greater the acceleration.
So generally we say that the hitting point must be mastered, which means that the force must be used at the moment when the ball is hit, and the same is true for even pulling the ball out.
For example: Swinging a bat fast is equivalent to the engine speed of a car in neutral.
The moment of hitting the ball is equivalent to the speed of the vehicle when it is fully loaded. At this time, it should be determined by the horsepower. Of course, if the horsepower is insufficient, the car will not run fast.
Yes! But...
Red is 45 degrees and hit power is 71%(cos45)
Green is 0 degrees in the direction of the strike force is 100%(cos0)
Blue is 30 degrees and the strike force is 87%(cos30)
According to the motion constant and the same speed, the parabola shot at 45 degrees has the longest flight distance. However, according to the principle of vector mechanics, the force generated at the same angle as the direction of movement is the greatest. Therefore, unless the pitcher's ball drops at 45 degrees and we swing the bat at 45 degrees, otherwise if the ball comes straight, we will also follow the direction of movement. As a result, the ball flies out at 45 degrees, so the force is reduced to the original 0.7 (cos45) and will not fly far.
Therefore, the initial velocity conditions are not the same and the laws of motion cannot be fully quoted.
Professional baseball pitchers can move the ball to the left, right, down, or even up when pitching to avoid the opposing batter. The physics behind this can be explained by the Magnus effect. (When the rotation angular velocity vector of a rotating object does not coincide with the object's flight speed vector, a lateral force will be generated in the direction perpendicular to the plane composed of the rotation angular velocity vector and the translation velocity vector. Under the action of this lateral force, the object flies The phenomenon of trajectory deflection is called the Magnus effect.)
It's all about spin
Once the pitcher completes the throw, the baseball throw is affected by three factors: gravity, drag, and the Magnus force. Gravity pulls the ball down, drag slows it down, and the Magnus force... depends on how the ball is thrown. As the ball spins forward on its flight path, pressure changes on the ball, and the Magnus effect creates a force in the direction of the ball's rotation that is perpendicular to the direction of the ball's motion.
In baseball, the pitcher has more control over the spin of the ball than in any other sport. Pitchers can add topspin, backspin, or sidespin to the ball the way they want it to be thrown. The difficulty of each throw will vary depending on the spin. As the difficulty increases, the margin of error decreases.
Fastballs are the easiest to throw because the Magnus Effect affects them very little. The four-seam fastball is the ball pitchers throw most often. When pitching a ball, pitchers naturally add a backspin. The backspin forces the Magnus force upward and the ball will land slower than other throws, giving the illusion that the ball is rising. Other fastballs, such as the two-seam fastball and the cutter, are pitched with spin, but because the ball moves so quickly, the Magnus Effect does not change its position drastically.
A changeup is a pitch that relies primarily on Magnus force formation. The curveball is the most important changeup and is thrown by almost all Major League Baseball (MLB) starting pitchers. When a pitcher throws a ball, he twists his wrist quickly, giving the ball a lot of spin. This will cause the ball to land diagonally to the left (right wrist pitcher). Curveballs can be extremely effective when thrown correctly, often leaving batters swinging in vain at the dust they throw up, or even actively exiting the path of a ball thrown in the strike zone.
The slider is a pitch with horizontal spin, so it changes sideways (right to left for right-handed pitchers). The options when throwing a screwball are similar to a curveball, except it will drop from the right instead of the left (right-wrist pitchers). Pitchers also throw other types of changeups, but they are primarily variations of these pitches described above. For example, a 12-6 curveball will land directly without any lateral movement.
The finger flick is one of the most spectacular of all pitches, and the Magnus Effect is actually its enemy. Ideally, when a fingertip ball is thrown to the catcher, the ball will only spin once. Because there is no spin, a Karman vortex appears behind the ball, as Ed explains in his World Cup blog . Gate Vortex Street creates slight fluctuations in the ball's motion, which is enough to bypass the batter. In fact, with a great finger flick, even the pitcher doesn't know where it will end up. But if the flipped ball spins too much, the ball's motion will become more balanced due to the Magnus effect and form a straight trajectory, which will make it easier to hit. When thrown correctly, the ball will jump from one side to the other, as you can see in the animated GIF.
The key to effective pitching is to combine different types of pitches to keep the hitter from predicting the trajectory of the ball and throwing him off balance. When pitching, pitchers should also hide their pitching motion so that batters don't guess from their motion where the ball is going.
If you want to continue to pay attention to the dynamics of baseball, please pay attention to Galileo sports, if you are a fan of baseball, you may wish to buy a baseball hitting net of your own, improve your skills, and give yourself a chance to win!
