Physics In Baseball

In the photo, a baseball is being hit by a bat in a game. This photo was taken at a Gonzaga baseball game on campus (I used a profession photo because they are way better and a second photo is used to show the moment of contact which is what I am talking about). In terms of the physics in the photo. The focus of this paper will be on the energy transfer from the bat to the ball, which causes the ball to reverse directions, increase velocity, and create a launch angle to potentially be a homerun. Physics in baseball is very complicated, where there are many things before during and after the swing occur, but the focus will be the moment of impact in order to stay compact. The goal of the batter is to create energy with his bat, and get …show more content…
The first concept to go over here is kinetic energy and conservation of momentum. We know that when something is in motion, it has kinetic energy. This kinetic energy from the ball and bat collide, and for a moment (like the picture) the kinetic energy becomes potentially energy, and then back to kinetic energy in the opposite direction the ball was originally going. According to the law of conservation of momentum, the sum of the momentum of both the bat and the ball have to be the same before and after the collision. So the faster the bat is swung, and the faster the ball is thrown, the more energy will be in the ball following contact from the bat, equaling a greater distance traveled and higher velocity off the …show more content…
He published his Principia in 1687 in England which laid the foundation for a large portion of physics. The publication contained his laws of motion which perfectly explains the force used in a baseball swing, as well as the energy and momentum in the contact that must be preserved before and after thus showing the transfer of energy where the ball is sent in the opposite direction as a higher velocity. This was long before baseball was invented in 1839, but sense they are universal concepts that explain so many things they can easily be used with baseball. Now in terms of who started using this concepts first to explain baseball, I struggled to find good information here. But whoever started it, their purpose was very clear and simple. But applying physics to baseball, they can look at bat angles, and bat sizes in order to find the best place to hit the baseball and optimal size bat to do this with. Scientist are able to explain baseball in terms of physics too show players how to optimize hitting the ball at the highest velocity possible and best launch angle