The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-04-06
PERFECT SPHERES
With All His Scientific Skill Man
Cannot Produce Them.
THE cURvING OF A BASEBALL.

Il 10 Possible Only Because the Ball 10
an Imperfect Globe and In Compare
con With lie Size Much Roushss
Than the Surface Of the Earth.
The real reason why a baseball can
be thrown so that It will describe won
derful 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.
. II 1t were possible to make perfect
sphere-if II were possible to make
baseball with an absolutely smooth sur
face and an exact sphere-no pitcher
In the world could make 1t 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 1t Is partly In the art
or knack the professional pitcher has
in holding and releasing the baseball:
az he throws 1t. 1t Is also due to the
fact that baseball has wonderfully
rough surface against which the air
catches and turns It that gives It the
curve.
It you pass your hand over a plate
glass 1t moves smoothly with nothing
to retard 1t. II you pass your hand
over an unplaned board you can feel
the rOughness-splinters we call them
You cannot move your hand as easily
over the board. This Is the same prin-
ciple with the baseball. There Is u
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 1t de-
scribes curve.
This does not detract in the least
from the cleverness Of the pitcher who
can so accurately Judge his muscular
control as to make baseball curve up
or down. right or left. But the fact
remains that 1t Is the roughness Of the
baseball that makes oil bis pitching
cleverness possible.
Take a brand new league ball In
your hand. II looks to be a perfect
sphere-that is. absolutely even and
uniformly round and AZ smooth MS
glass;" And It may be as smooth NJ
glass. for glass also has rough sur
face.
Put q baseball under the most pow
erful microscope, enlarge 1t microscopy
cally 10000 diameters. and what dc
you sect The very thing mentioned In
the 6rst paragraph Of this article. The
surface b rough. It looks like the
landscape In the Alps or Yellowstone
| park or any other rough section Of the
earth. It has peaks. ranges. ridges
valleys. plains and holes. guIches and
all sorts Of uneven places. and II the
earth could be made 40 small a. q
baseball It would be practically q per
feet sphere and absolutely smooth
This 10 because the highest mountains
Of the earth and the deepest valleys
would be millions upon millions Of
times smaller In comparison with thu
rough uneven places on a baseball II
either the earth were reduced to thu
size Of q baseball or a baseball enlarg
ed to the size of the earth.
! II this were not true the earth would
not revolve SO regularly upon it's axis
1t would perform an I'm shoot" Of
tout shoot" and curve on through
space.
Even the billiard bali has surface
much rougher In comparison to its size
than the surface Of the earth. and We
refer to a billiard ball as about the
smoothest thing known. "As smooth
as a billiard ball. Is a well known
smile For the same reason that Z
perfectly smooth baseball could not b.
curved. a perfectly smooth and per
fectly round billiard ball could not b.
made to curve on the table. II would
not take English" as billiard player
call 1t when they make q ball 60 for
ward and then roll backward or in any
direction just by the manner In ,whicl
they strike It with chalked cue.
This fact Of r0ughness causing It Il
spin becomes all too evident when q
player forgets to chalk his cue and
plays several shots thereafter. II tn,
leather tip Of the cue becomes shiny
II will slip on the ball. There Is NJ
purchase with which 1t can take hold
But chalk In sticky stuff. and the gran
ules are large. 30 that a well chalket
cue has very rough surface. and thiI
rough surface of the tip Of the cue Hti
into the rough projections on the ball
and thereby q ball can be given lot
Of twist. In order to accomplish THU
successfully. moreover. the billiard
cloth nap must be new and therefor.
rough
During recent experimentation with
regard to the kinetic theory Of gases
/ q Belgian scientist desired to flnd on,
how perfect a sphere could be made ir
/ order that by the clashing of these to
| gether an idea might be secured Of the
effect Of the collisions Of the spherica
atoms that make up gas. The prof
ect had to be abandoned at last be
cause no machinery could be construct
ed that would turn out a perfect
sphere artiHcially. and nature has nc
/ perfect sphere Of large size In all hel
many forms of matter. Perfect disks
could be made. but a round ball wa
beyond the limits Of human accom-