Newtons Laws and Baseball
Newton's 1st
Law- An object in motion tends to stay in
motion unless acted upon an outside force.
As a baseball player stands ready to swing his
bat, a series of events must happen. Before
he swings the bat, his hips begin to rotate, which
sets off a chain reaction that moves his legs and
upper body, along with the bat to come through and
hit the baseball. This action is referred to
as hips
before hands The player's hips act on
both his legs and bat that would have otherwise
remained at rest, following Newton's 1st
law!!
www.bftgu.com
Newtons 2nd
Law- The Net Force (ΣF) that is applied to
an object is equal to its mass (m) multiplied by
its acceleration (a).
F=m*a
Just like in Newton's first law above, the hips
again are causing the force. The
acceleration is generated from the hips
motion. To obtain the largest amount of
force, the player would need to be able to
accelerate his hips along with having a heavy
mass(the bat) to strike the ball.
Instead of linear motion that generates the force,
a baseball swing is calculated using rotational
motion.
"Rotational motion is similar to circular motion,
except the object involved is a rigid body in
which all points rotate around the center of mass
of the object and not around a fixed point". (2)
Newtons second law still applies, but the
force equation is transferred into rotation force,
called torque. The mass is replaced with a
quantity called inertia and the acceleration is
now called angular acceleration.
T(torque)= I(inertia)*α(angular acceleration)
I=ß(constant)*m(mass)R(radius)^2
α=a(linear acceleration)/R(radius)
The torque then is dependent on the radius.
the smaller the radius is, the larger the angular
acceleration. When a player lowers the
radius of his bat, he will have a smaller moment
of inertia and a larger acceleration, maximizing
his torque.
quantummoxie.wordpress.com
Newtons 3rd Law-
Every force has its pair that is equal in
magnitude but opposite in direction.
This law explains why Major League
Baseball players try their best to hit the
baseball on the same plane out from the
bat, as it came in from the pitcher.
This will maximize the force output on the
baseball.
http://bftgu.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/upswing1-1024x666.jpg
"Rotational mechanics teach hitters
to hit the ball level to the path it is
on, equal and opposite to the pitched
ball. The hips are working equal and
opposite, the shoulders are working equal
and opposite and the elbows are as
well. Front hip back, back hip
forward-front shoulder up, back shoulder
down- front elbow up, back elbow
down. It's all connected to each
other and the results are rotational
mechanics!" (2)
|