The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1913-06-05
The Physics Of Baseball
BY Hugh S. Fullerton
CCopyrisht, lal8, by ", c. Chapman

W. c. Chapmanl
accomplished the aim OF making a ball |
not too dead" and not too lively. |
The shock of the bat against the ball
dispels the air gradually and at the
same time causes a molecular change
in the rubber so that a ball. after be-
ing batted hard, loses much of its re-
silent power. The disarranging of
the molecular force causes a ball
which, to an outsider may seem as
firm and solid as ever, to become a
"mush," dead and lifeless, and likely
to slow the entire game If permitted
to remain in play. The bats used are
almost all of second growth ash of the
finest and straightest grain, and
carefully dried They are supposed to
retain their resilient qualities indeh-
nitely, but after a month or. two of
hard usage the bat no longer possesses
the drive" necessary for lard hit
ting. Yet bats that have lost life"
often will, when kept in storage few
months, recover their lost ring" and
be as good as ever, although the sec
ond time they die" more quickly.
This sense of feeling and hearing
among players Is a wonderful thing.
The object of each batter is to hit
it on the trade mark" with that part
o. his bat between four and six inches
from the end He does not express it
that way, but he aims to hit the cen
ter of mass of the ball with the cen
ter of percussion of the bat-so he
says, square on the nose" The cen
ter of percussion of the bat varies ac-
cording to the grip of the batters
hands, and it is the object of the
pitcher to force the ball to revolve so
as to avoid meeting the center of per-
cussion.
A ball weighing five and eight
ounces and with circumference of
nine inches, pitched at an approx
mate velo ;ity Of $50 feet second
over a distance of 60 feet, is struck
squarely upon the center of percus-
sion of a bat weighing 40 ounces and
swinging at velocity of 1850 feet
per second will travel how far? Per-
haps the professor of physics can
figure it out, but If he does he is
wrong. He would have to know more
than these statistics before he could
make the correct calculation. He
should know the forearm strength of
the batter, the muscle leverage, the
meeting angle of ball and bat, the ro-
tary motion Of the ball, the condition
of the atmosphere, direction of wind
and few other things. 1t is much
easier to have Vean Gregg shoot up
a fast one, let Larry Lajote hit it; and
measure the distance, than to take
postgraduate course and calculate it.
Every ball that, Is pitched, or
thrown, or batted has some rotary or
oscillatory movement all its own fur
| ther to complicate attempts to solve
problems in baseball physics. The
ball has a wonderful ability to alb
sorb and retain motion no matter how
impaired. The spit ball, which was
so fully and exhaustively treated in
the lectures Of my friend the pro-
fessor that l expect to see about 120
Washes graduate from his school in
the next two years, is the result of
skillful applying of an unnatural force
to counteract the natural rotation of
the ball. The professor disputes this.
Possibly he does not know that ball,
gripped with the thumb and two
fingers, and thrown directly over
hand, has natural tendency to ro-
tate upward and hop" as the pitch
ers say All good fast balls rotat-
ing this way take a sudden jump in
the air. The spit ball pitcher vets
the surface of the ball, grips the low
er side tightly with his thumb, let's
the ball slide off the fingers. The ef-
feet Is that two conflicting forces
cause the ball to ''wobble" for dis
tance, and then, yielding to the influ-
ence of the thumb pressure and the
attraction Of gravity, it darts down
ward When a ball thus pitched is
hit it still refuses to surrender it's in
clination to rotate. 1t starts toward
the infield with two forces still
struggling for mastery. Each time the
ball touches the earth it takes a diff
ferent English. The infelder scoops
the ball and throws. If he clutches
the ball hard enough to kill all mo-
tion, all is well. If he seizes it light.
ly and throws with the same motion
the ball takes fresh and renewed Eng
lish as 1t leaves his hand and is more
likely to shoot out of reach of the
batsman toward whom he throws.
The pitched ball. manipulated SO as
to revolve unnaturally, takes Eng
lish" in the air just as billiard ball
does against cloth and cushion. Many
persons have told me that the atmos-
phere ron still day offers practically
a uniform resistance to projectile
1t does not We know now that the
air is filed with eddies, currents and
pockets. even on the calmest of days
But admitting that it is uniform in
density, ball does not follow the
physical law of constant decrease in
speed In ratio to the resistance of the
air. 1t even is capable Of accelerated
mOtlOH, anu Vi UOtu III lHc same OU
feet. That is, ball may be made to
slow up and then resume a faster
rate OF speed. The professor of phys
les doubts this. yet it is fact that
any experienced ball-player will vouch
for. They have seen ball seem to
hesitate, and then proceed at an ac-
celebrated gait. 1t may sound impossi-.
BILE but at some spot in the path
of every spit ball, slow ball or knuckle
ball, 1t suddenly changes pace.