Physics of Baseball & Softball

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2024-10-18 17:30:08

The following material has been expanded considerably into a 324 page book “Physics of baseball and softball” published by Springer in March 2011.

Another very interesting Physics of Baseball and Softball site is maintained by Dan Russell at http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell

Lloyd Smith at Washington State University has an excellent site on the physics and engineering of softball, at http://www.mme.wsu.edu/~ssl , including information on how bats and balls are tested and certified for use in the USA.

James Sherwood has a similar site http://m-5.eng.uml.edu/umlbrc describing test procedures used to certify baseball bats and balls at the University of Massachusetts – Lowell.

Batters know from experience that there is a sweet spot on the bat, about 17 cm from the end of the barrel, where the shock of the impact, felt by the hands, is reduced to such an extent that the batter is almost unaware of the collision. At other impact points, the impact is usually felt as a sting or jarring of the hands and forearm, particularly if the impact occurs at a point well removed from the sweet spot.

The sweet spot of a bat exists because bat vibrations are not excited significantly at that spot. The spot is close to the centre of percussion (COP) for a freely supported bat, so it was thought at one time that the sweet spot might be associated with the COP. However, the COP shifts a long way toward the handle when a batter holds the handle, and plays only a minor role in the feel of the bat for an impact at the sweet spot.