VIBRATIONS

Every baseball bat has a “sweet spot.” When a baseball hits a bat in the wrong place your hands “sting,”
 it means the force of the collision has excited waves or vibrations called modes. When the ball is hit at
the node it will not sting your hands. A mode generates two nodes or a position of zero displacement. 
A baseball bat consists of two major nodes; this region is proverbially known as the “sweet zone.” Higher
frequency modes affect the ball speed, but can hardly be felt by the batter. Baseball bat vary in lengths,
but generally the “sweet spot” is approximately 17 cm from the end of the barrel of a major league baseball bat.
 


www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/baseball.html

A collision near the node reduces the vibrations felt by the hand. The existence of the
“sweet spot” is mainly because the vibrations do not agitate at that particular node. Impact on the first
node will not excite the first mode, but will affect the second mode. Thus is true for the second node’s
relationship with the first mode.



www.kettering.edu/~drussel/bats-new/batvibers.html   

Introduction

Collision

Equations

References