Show the physics of baseball by HU hugh 01 S rM fullerton lerton 1913 by V G claar chapman 1 the first liw of physics Is that all that goes up must come down at al vis excepting the cos cost t or 0 living the first law of baseball bi is not to let it come dow don n the difre difference rence bot between Neen the physics af t the clas classroom room and of the diamond Is that the student indent learns the laws gov eov arning inertia velock vel oct dna dynamics the curvilinear of projectiles resisting power of air attractive pow PON er of masses and the ballplayer bl experiment deals oell with nith the bieak of these thesa 1118 marij man times the student who makes his college team Is apt to think that the prof N was as stringing him when ho he laid down doan the laws of motion mass and ve locati for a baseball under skilled manipulation and control seems like a trust to come as ab near violating all the laws lanns as possible the ball alwis Is to do exactly what the laws lana of ph physics siy it should do with halt half a dozen other forces striving to corn com oel oct it to do something else and A with till the che bad boys in uniform trying to in sent lent new dew methods of making it violate the liw it if the supreme court should find the liw of gravitation unconstitutional or if the ball could breathe in an absolute vacuum baseball would be a simple proposition the ball would keep on going in a str straight tight line until some one stopped it line hits would continue to travel in a straight line until some fielder standing on the needle point of jumped and pulled it down with one hand there is a professor of 0 physics in a 11 un hersIty who wrote me inquiring as to the physics of the spit ball and who later lectured to his crisses upon the subject I 1 asked sev eral cral great pitchers to demonstrate for the benefit of the professor how hon the held the ball swung their arms re leased it ath with their fingers and hoan bow much power they applied and to what point on the surface of the sphere among them was dark clark griffith a mas inas in theor who aed bied to be past mas ter in practice I 1 asked him to take the professor to the grounds and show shou him things the result was a note from griffith in which he said don t send any more bugs to see me the point la Is that the players do not care what nhat scientific phenomena thc jhc develop so long as the opposing bits men take their be althies i e swings at the ball and miss the college pro fessor does not care much whether baish strikes collins out three times with runners on bases so long as lie he can demonstrate that the laws lans gov erring rotation air pressure fric tiou retard and accelerated motion etc etc are pro probed ed b the actions of 0 the ball so physics and baseball as studies have kept aloof from each other yet eer move in a ball gime at af fords a problem there are basic con dillons which in themselves are north of study consider atmospheric pressure did you know that a man 4 41 amt 11 N ft 45 N 4 clarke Grif griffith fich lio ho can throw a baseball 1 50 feet on ilia die polo grounds new neva york on a acid calm dai can throw the same ball almost feet on the denver denier D oll 11 park in studying the physics of baseball let us commence with fill the chief ample let rents of the game the bat and ball the ball is composed of a small core aith a hea beai laser of highly treated para clara rubber then wound with nith two kinds or of ool pla arn over which Is a glue elue substance upon which is a horse tide cover the ball is semi c both the rubber and the glue upon the cover is pasted tending to told air the difference even of a of an inch in the thickness of t tha 0 rubber makes the ball so fast that it scarcely can be ba handled the makers experimented tor for years to got get the ball to tho proper pitch of and appear finally to ha have c accomplished the aim ot of making a ball not too dead and not too lively the shock of the bat against the bill dispels the air bradu lly and at the same time causes a molecular change in the rubber so that a ball after being batted hard loses much of its resilient potter the of the molecular force causes a ball to an outsider ma seem as a firm and solid as ever to become a mush dead and lifeless and likely to slow the entire game it if permitted to remain in pla the bats used aro are almost ill all of second growth ash of the fenest and straightest grain and carefully dried they are supposed to retain their resilient qualities indell ril tely but after a month or two of hard usage the file bit no longer possesses the drive tor for hard hitting I 1 et bats that have hae lost life often will nhen kept in storage a few months recover their lost ring and bo be as good as ever eer although the see sec ond end time die more this sense ot of feeling and hearing among among players is a wonderful thing the object of each batter is to hit it on the trade mark with nith that part of his bit beann between een four and six inches from the end lie ile does not empress e press it that wa but he aims to hit the cen ter of mass ot of the ball with the cen ter of percussion ot of the bat so he says square on tho the nose the tha cen ter ot of percussion of 0 the bat varies ac cording to the grip of the batters hands and it is the object of 0 tho th pitcher to force the ball to renolie so as to aboid meeting the center of per cession A ball weighing hing the file and eight ounces and with nith a ot of nine inches pitched at an mate velo it ot of feet a second over oer a distance of GO CO feet Is struck upon the center of percus slon sion of a bat weighing 40 ounces and swinging at a velocity of 1250 feet per pel second mill travel how hon tar far per haps the professor of physics can figure it out but it if he does he Is N wrong rong ile he would have to know more than these statistics before he could make the correct calculation he should knox know the forearm strength of the batter it r f muscle leverage the meeting analil angle of bell ball and bat the ro tary motion ot of the ball the condition of the atmosphere direction ot of wind and a few other things it Is much easier to have hae vean gieng shoot up a fist one let larry lajoie hit it and me measure asure the distance than to take a post graduate course and calculate it E eier cry ball that is pitched or throN thrown vii or batted has some or oscillatory movement all its onnfer own further to complicate attempts to solve problems in baseball physics the ball has a wonderful ability to ab and retain motion no matter how hon imparted the spit ball which was bo be fully and exhaustively treated in the lectures of my friend the pro lessor fessor that I 1 expect to see about graduate from his school in the next vao two sears is the result ot of skillful applying appling ot of an unnatural force to counteract the natural rotation of the ball the professor disputes this possible Pos he does not know that a ball gripped with nith the thumb and tv two 0 fingers and thrown directly over hand has a natural to ro tate upward and hop as the pitch ers say all good fast balls ing this may take a sudden jump in fit the air the spit ball pitcher wets mets the surface ot of the ball grips the low lonn er side with his thumb lots lota the ball slide oft off the lingers fingers the et ef fet feet is that ano two conflicting forces cause the ball to cobble tor for a dis tance and then 31 elding to the influx ence of the thumb sure and the attraction of gravity it darts down N ward ard when a ball thus pitched is hit it still refuses to surrender its in cli nation to kotite it starts toward the infield with tu two 0 forces still struggling tor for master maste rj each time the ball touches the earth it tikes a dif terent ferent anglish the infielder scoops the ball and thiers it if ho clutches the ball hard enough to kill hill all mo me tion don all li is N well ell it if he seizes it light 13 1 and throdis with the same motion the ball takes fresh and renewed eng dig lish as it lea leabes es his hand band and la Is more like llvell to shoot out of reach of 0 the batsman toward whom he throws the pitched ball manipulated so as to revolve unna unnatural takes eng lish in flip air just as a billiard ball does against cloth and cushion man persons have hae told me that the atmos phare on a still day offers practically a uniform resistance istance to a projectile it does not we wc know now that the air Is filled with till eddies currents and pockets even 01 en on the calmest of 0 days but admitting that it is uniform in densle dens lt a ball does not follow the physical ph steal law of constant deci case in speed in ratio to the resistance of the air it even is capable of accelerated motion and of both in the same 60 feet that Is a ball may be made to slow up and then their resume a taster faster rate of speed the professor of ph doubt thih et it Is a fact that any experienced bill pla ei N will ill vouch for they havo have seen a ball seem to hesitate and then proceed at an ac celebrated cele rated gait it ma sound ble but at some borne spot in the path ot of every spit ball slow ball or knuckle i bat ball it suddenly changes pace we experimented once with fill a matic gun the rilling rifling in the barcli ot of which saie gave it biety rotation tion in any desired direction it N is ib merely in an exaggeration of the curne curie we shot b bills ill under u 1 1 der 30 pounds of pressure cinik angstl ing ahm i c in curie sometimes a hundred feet putting the up curve motion on oil the ball chich alch ahn a s tends to curve in the direction ol of its rotation we aimed the gun at a birget exactly on a straight line and the ball going straight tor for perhaps a t hundred feet sud suddenly deril seemed to slacken speed then it leaped upward and rose lt it a terrific rate until it passed over the cross bar of the flagpole flag in the cen ter field 70 feet above the ground yet the ball waa not disobeying the laws ot of phy physics rather proving provene them in its terrific speed it had encounter ed an air billow which it could not penetrate and it had bounced off this denser bunch ot of air and rolled up nv ward ard one would think that it a baseball Is hit into the air Is will follow a ball curve in ratio to the angle ot of ascension reduced by the amount ot of air pressure says bays its it should bould it will not and no man can draw tho the ballistic curve curie that any fly ball will follow the greatest range ranee ot of any projectile in theory Is gained by an angle of 45 degrees military author ties know that owing to air resist anco ance tho the greatest distance is attain ed at an angle just under 40 degrees having both the theory and the tice therefore ball players to make home runs should hit bit the ball at an angle of 0 40 degrees minus one of 1 I ik f 4 7 0 ZA Z A AIN john kling frank dalier bakers s world s series home runs was nas near that angle the other scarcely 30 degrees it vent farther As a matter ot of fact even eien it if a ball player could lilt hit a ball at any desired angle he could not be certain where it would go it would depend too much upon the rotary motion ot of the ball list summer I 1 saw raw a hard line hit driven straight at charlie herzog ot of the giants he put up his hands to catch the ball then suddenly threw his head aside just in time to avoid being hit in the face the ball missing his hands by two feet the ball had shot suddenly from its true path in a game bet between washington and chicago late last fall walter johnson lilt hit a ball at an angle of close to 40 degrees and with mith terrific force 1 I should estimate that it wab aab 90 feet high at its greatest elevation had it followed the true ballistic curve it would hive hio passed over the center field fence the bill sudden ay b stopped started to drop downward then caught in another current of air and bodie coille who was vias running after the ball ON overtook it corn com ing toward him as it if the batter had hit it from center field under condi conch eions such as these a study of aero would mould help players placers more than physics would mould I 1 the he outfielder N who lie gets the jump on the ball at the crack of the bat figures its trajectory at a glance sprints desperately outward and turns exacts upon the spot where the ball will vill alight then catches it has all the calculations ever devised beaten phi lies assumes that balls thrown with equal force follo following iving the sure sarve angle of projection over oer the sime range will nill be alike I 1 never neier doubted it until I 1 practiced at second base with malachi kittridge and the lamented lim donohue throwing ing the ball down to me donohue threw taster and seemed harder yet the ball came into the hands as lightly as it if tossed hitt ridges ridge s thrown bill came more scowl but it jaried and bruised the e hands this peculia peculiarity of throwers th rowers is un dei stood well by planers and one of the first inquiries concerning a new placer is whether lie he throws throns a light or a hea ball which refers to the striking force ot of the ball and not its N weight eight A ball revolving revolting ni and thrown over the finger tips as a tibt ball is thrown has a tend tendency enc to lift is light one that loses its ro tary motion and oscillates rather than rotates is dead and heave beav every player placer throws a dif terent kind of ball the variations depending upon the size sile ot of the hinds the length of 0 the and the manner ot of holding the ball the man who know knew enough about ph physics and also about bise baseball bi liall could fill a book on the ph physics of pitching it is simple while seeming sec ining complex it was vas not so very ery long abo that tyng the harvard pitcher developed a curve ball that started a protract cd argument which finall finalli resulted in a group ot of learned professors gath ering to decide whether hether a ball actual ly could be made to curve in the tha air the professors who doubted the pos poa sivility lity ot of a ball curving based their doubts upon the alleged insufficiency of air resistance they admitted the tha theory theor and doubted the tact fact every curve shoot hook tadeas tade aa ay and slow blow ball depends upon the same prin caples rev resolution alution and air pressure the nay a ball curses curnes depends upon the force till ith ellich aich it la is thrown and the amount of rotation its dirc direction tin de pearls upon the amount of friction ap alicd by the fingers to a given elen point on the surface of the ball the bill at al aus as cunes in the direction of the tha heaviest friction applied by the hand and aay from the heaviest air friction tho the curve cune increases in the ratio of tho the amount of its revola tion perhaps the most frequent question asked or of a baseball writer Is how tar far can a ball be made to curved of 0 course they mean li bl a normal pitcher not using mechanical assist ance I 1 nen never er have been ablo able to find the limit of the curve nor indeed to calculate calculi te the curve cure accurately accurate at al though I 1 have hae made some expert ments I 1 refer to the actual curve of the ball due to its rotary motion and air resistance I 1 do not think that the real curve of 0 the ball in 56 feet distance from the pitchers hand when he releases ses the ball to the home plate can be more than 20 inches I 1 have heard ballplayers ball players declare the ball curves irom from six sl inches to five feet I 1 tried it once with orval overall who he had I 1 believe the most sweeping and widest last fast curve ball I 1 ever sax sail we placed 12 big sheets of tissue paper bet berneen Neen slats 8 of them at short intervals over the first 15 feet in front of the plate the rest scattered at wider intervals until the last one was iv as 6 teet feet in front of 0 the pitchers pitcher s slab and to ray my |