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hswansonphysics — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:18:08 +0000

Hunter Swanson
5/3/10

Physics of Baseball

Main Goals: show where the best place to hit a baseball is on a bat, define the sweet spot, and determine why aluminum bats allow the ball to fly farther than wooden bats. I want to learn the difference between wooden and metal bats and how they have the same sweet spot.

Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5 will be presented through a Powerpoint and 4 is an activity that the class will participate in.
1. Intro: Discuss physics of hitting a baseball
a. Time taken for swing (4 miliseconds)
b. Trying to hit ball on the “sweet spot” of the bat
2. Define Sweet Spot
a. Part of the bat where the ball will get hit the farthest
b. Small node, 6.5 inches from end of bat
c. Minimizes vibration and maximizes energy transferred from bat to ball
i. 2 waves that are furthest apart are called antinodes
ii. Nodes are where the 2 waves cancel out stopping the oscillation
iii. The more that bat oscillates, more energy is wasted
iv. maximum output is generated when theres no oscillations, at the nodes.
d. When ball hits outside of sweet spot, stinging (higher amplitude)
e. As a result, the fundamental and second vibration modes are both excited with about the same amplitude.
f. Show a diagram of the 2 frequencies

3. Discuss the difference between wooden and metal bats
a. Have relatively the same sweet spot
b. Metal bats hit the ball farther
c. Different materials within metal and wooden baseball bats
4. Sweet Spot activity
a. Have people hold a baseball bat between their thumb and index finger
b. Their partner will hit the bat with hammer moving up from the bottom of the bat
c. This will show the different feeling after hitting a ball and how there are no vibrations when the sweet spot is hit
5. Conclusion: Why hitting the sweet spot matters in baseball and the danger in using metal bats (relating to Gunner from Marin Catholic).

Information that is necessary:
Describing how a baseball is hit, where the batter wants the ball to hit, and why the sweet spot enables the ball to go the farthest. Also I will note the different materials within a baseball bat.
Some things I don’t need to mention are how the baseball is thrown, the rules of the game, and the force produced by the bat when it hits the ball (but I will discuss the distance the ball travels)

3 Astronomers

hswansonphysics — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:06:08 +0000

Nicolaus Copernicus: heliocentric cosmology
Tycho Brahe:laws of planetary motion
Johannes Kepler: eponymous laws of planetary motion

prelimary project proposal

hswansonphysics — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:30:29 +0000

Physics of Baseball

1. My project is the physics behind hitting a baseball
2. I chose this topic because baseball has interested me since a young age and I have always been curious how hard it is to hit a baseball. The fact that Major Leaguers can hit a baseball going 80 mph is unbelievable. I want to know the chances of this happening and how talented these people are by being able to hit the ball.
3. The goal of my project is to find out how hard it is to hit an 80 mph fastball. If the Major Leaguers can do it, how hard would it be for an average person to be able to hit it? Where is the sweet spot in the bat, and what difference does that make on how far the ball travels?
4. My finished project will be an experiment report/powerpoint
5. Two properly referenced sources:
• Whiting, Jim. The Science of Hitting a Home Run: Forces and Motion in Action (Action Science). Mankato, Minnesota: Fact Finders, 2010.
• “The Physics of Baseball: Hitting”. Howstuffworks “Video Channel”. Web. April 18, 2010. .

Final Physics Project

hswansonphysics — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:38:59 +0000

I’m thinking that I might want to explore the physics between hitting a baseball in the Major Leagues for my Final Physics Project.

One link that has a lot of interesting and great facts for my project is attached below.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/4945-the-physics-of-baseball-hitting-video.htm

Angular Momentum

hswansonphysics — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:10:25 +0000

Rotational Inertia is the tendency to resist any change in its state of rotation unless acted upon by another net torque. angular momentum is the product of this and the rotational velocity. there is angular momentum in both the axles and the wheels of the mousetrap car. Angular momentum affects whether the wheels of the car will remain in motion (keep spinning) when the force from the string has no longer been applied. this could help my car because if the string is loosely tied to the axle, then when all the string has been used, the axle can keep spinning.

Rotational Speed

hswansonphysics — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:58:38 +0000

Exercise 2: Both wheels have the same rotational speed since they are both going the same amount of rotations per time. The wheels have different tangential speed though. The bigger wheel has a greater tangential speed due to the radius, the wheel covers much more distance per rotation than the small wheel.

Exercise 4: sue’s wheels have a greater rotational speed because her smaller wheels have to make more rotations than Dan’s to keep up.

closed system

hswansonphysics — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:06:15 +0000

the earth is not a close system because solar rays are entering the earth’s atmosphere and creating more energy. the earths total energy is not constant because solar energy is always entering the earths atmosphere. The Law of Conservation of Energy proves that there is a constant amount of energy in the universe, but the amount within the earths atmosphere is always changing, just not the universe. therefore, the earth is not a closed system.

Electric Potential

hswansonphysics — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:02:17 +0000

electric potential energy: the potential energy possessed by an electrically charged particle in recognition to its location to other electrically charged particles. this concept of potential energy per unit charge is electric potential.

voltage: is just another commonly used name for electric potential with a potential of 1 volt which equals 1 joule of energy per 1 coulomb of charge 1 volt= 1 joule/coulomb

capacitor: a device that electric energy can be stored. a capacitor has a pair of conducting plates, which when close and connected to a charge, the electrons are transferred from one plate to another

Kinetic Energy vs. Momentum

hswansonphysics — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:14:39 +0000

Momentum and kinetic energy are both properties of motion. however, Momentum is a vector (it deals with direction) where as kinetic energy is a scalar quantity (no direction, only has magnitude). when two objects are moving, their momentum may cancel out (since one is negative), but since kinetic energy is never negative; the total kinetic energy of two moving objects is greater than one alone. Momentum is proportional to velocity, but kinetic energy is proportional to the square of velocity. this means that something with a smaller mass but greater speed will have a greater impact (kinetic energy) than something that has a greater mass but smaller speed, since kinetic energy is proportional to the square of velocity.

elastic and inelastic

hswansonphysics — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:49:56 +0000

elastic collision: the energy is conserved in the elastic

inelastic collision: the energy is not conserved