Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1913-09-04
PERFECT SPHERES
With All His Scientific Skill Man
Gap9 Produce Them.
THE CURvING OF A BASEBALL.
It Is Possible Only Because the Ball Is
an Imperfect Globe and In Compare
son With Its Size Much Rousher
Than the Surface of the Earth.

son With Its Size Much Rousher
Than the Surface of the Earth.
The real reason why a baseball can
be thrown so that it will describe won
, derfuI curves during its progress
through the air is that every such ball
has a surface made up Of mountains.
valleys, craters, canyons. gorges. plains
and other Irregularities of the surface
that, when the difference in size is
taken into consideration. makes the
surface of the earth seem like plate
glass.
If it were possible to make a perfect
sphere-if it were possible to make
baseball with IN absolutely smooth sur
face and an exact sphere-no pitcher
in the world could make it curve. The
very best pitchers baseball has ever
known or probably ever will know
could not make the ball deviate hairs
breadth in its flight.
| And so while it is partly in the art
/ or knack the professional pitcher has
! In holding and releasing the baseball
as be throws it. it is also due to the
fact that IL baseball has wonderfully
rough surface against which the air
catches and turns it that gives it the
curve
1t you pass your hand over a plate
glass 1t moves smoothly with nothing
to retnrd it If you pass your hand
over an unpaned board you can feel
the rOughneSS Splinters we call them
You cannot move your hand lis easily
over the board This is the same prin-
ciple with the baseball. There is a
roughneSs in its surface that catches
in the air and forces one side about or
retardS that side This has but one
result-to make the baseball leave its
straight course. and in doing this it de-
scribes Il curve.
This does not detract in the least
from the cIeverneSs of the pitcher who
can so accurately judge his muscular
control as to make Il baseball curve up |
or down. right or left. But the fact |
remains that it is the roughness of the |
baseball that makes all his pitching
clpvernesS possible.
Take brand new league ball in
your hand 1t looks to be perfect |
is. absolutely even and |
uniformly round and as smooth as
glass" And it may be as smooth as |
glass. for glass also has a rough sur
face
Put q baseball under the most pow
erfu microscope, enlarge it microscope |
cally 10000 dialleters. and what do |
you see? The very thing mentioned in |
the first paragraph of this article. The |
surface is rough 1t looks like the |!
landscape in the Alps or Yellowstone |
park or any other rough section of the
earth 1t has peaks ranges, ridges, |
valleys. plains and holes. gulches and |
all sorts of uneven places, and If the |
earth could he made as small as a |
baseball it would be practically per-
feet sphere and absolutely smooth. |
This is because the highest mountains |
of the earth and the deepest valleys |
would be millions upon millions of |
times smaller in comparison with the |
rough uneven places on baseball If !
either the earth were reduced to the |
size of baseball or baseball enlarg- |
ed to the size of the earth
If this were not true the earth would |
not revolve so regularly upon its axis. |
1t would perform an lin shoot or
'out shoot and curve off through |
space.
Even the billiard ball has surface |
much rougher in comparison to its size |
than the surface of the earth, and we |
refer to billiard ball as about the |
smoothest thing known. LAS smooth !
as IL billiard ball" is a well known
smile For the same reason that
perfectly smooth baseball could not be
curved. perfectly smooth and per
fectly round billiard ball could not be /
made to curve on the table 1t would
not take English" as billiard players
call it when they make a ball go for
ward and then roll backward or in any
direction just by the manner In which
they strike 1t with Il chalked cue.
This fact of roughness causing 1t to
spin becomes all too evident when a
player forgets to chalk his cue and
)lays several shots thereafter. If the
leather tip of the cue becomes shiny
t will slip on the ball There is no
purchase with which 1t can take hold.
But chalk is sticky stuff. and the gran
lies are large. so that well chalked
,ue has very rough surface. and this
'ough surface of the tip Of the cue fits
nto the rough projections on the ball,
Ind thereby ball can be given lot
If twist. In order to accomplish this
moreover. the billiard
10th nap must be new and therefore
ough.
During recent experimentation with
egard to the kinetic theory of gases
Belgian scientist desired to find out {
low perfect sphere could be made In {
rider that by the clashing of these to- {
,ether an idea might be secured of the 3
fleet OF the collisions of the spherical
toms that make up gas. The prof. ,
ct had to be abandoned at last be-
ause no machinery could be construct