What makes a baseball go farther

The determining factor lies in the physical properties of the bat and the ball, the moment of contact between the bat and the ball, and the interaction of the ball with the air as the ball flies towards the outfield. Let's pause here for a word about some of the elements involved in any collision: momentum and force.

To slow any moving object like a pitched ball , one has to apply a retarding force to slow it down. The net force required depends on how much you want to change the momentum and how quickly you want to change it. The quicker the change, the greater the force. In other words:. This equation tells us that we have a balancing act. To cause a given change in momentum you can apply a LARGE force for a short time interval, or you could apply a SMALL force for a long time or anything in between, as long as the two multiply to the same number.

This means that you could stop a rolling car with your little finger, if you could push against the car for a long time. You could even stop the Queen Mary by breathing on it. However, to effect a similar change in momentum over a very short time would require a much larger force.

In real-world terms, this means that it takes A LOT of force to stop a heavy, fast moving object quickly. When a oz. What happens? Well, we know from experience that the ball ends up sailing towards the outfield at about mph. But what happened in the collision?

There is a very important principle in physics called conservation of momentum. This law states that there must be the same amount of momentum after the collision as there was before the collision. You have to add up ALL the momentum before and after. In this collision, the bat slows down and gives much of its momentum to the baseball. So in our collision between bat and ball, what is happening?

Both objects experience an equal change in momentum as a result of the collision. But the greater mass of the bat means that, for a given change in momentum, it will experience a much smaller change in velocity than the ball. The much lighter ball undergoes a large change in velocity, which results in the ball flying away towards the outfield.

It would seem, then, that a large, heavy bat would be best for hitting a ball a long way, since once a big bat is moving at a given speed it has greater momentum than a light bat.

However, a large, heavy object also requires a great deal of effort to accelerate into motion from a standstill. It has LOTS of inertia. Inertia is the tendency of a still object to remain still, and a moving object to keep moving. A batter has only split seconds in which he must decide to swing and accelerate the bat to meet the ball.

A heavy bat requires great strength and excellent reflexes to use, otherwise it becomes a liability. If the bat is too heavy, the pitch will pass by before the batter can hit it. Some professional hitters prefer relatively light bats, which they can accelerate and swing quickly and accurately. As Rickey Henderson indicates, you have to have perfect timing and judgment to get a hit with a heavy bat: "I use a light bat, about 32 or 34 ounces, to get some more bat speed.

Bat speed can give you more distance, but it really gives you a chance to wait a little longer before deciding to swing , to see the ball to the plate a little longer, so you can just make contact with it. In addition, I discuss the effect of the famous Coors Field humidor. At that time, I did an interview with the Boston Globe, resulting in the article entitled "In the thick of the series, thin air may toss Sox a curve", by Colin Nickerson, which appeared in the Saturday October 27, edition.

Regardless of whether the ball is pitched or batted, its motion is determined by the forces acting on it. These forces are the downward force of gravity that we are all familiar with as well as two principal aerodynamic forces: the drag force and the Magnus force. Both the drag and Magnus forces result from small imbalances of the air pressure on different parts of the ball.

For a ball at rest in the air, pressure is the result of air molecules randomly bouncing off the surface of the ball. This type of pressure is known as static pressure, since the ball is not moving relative to the air. The static pressure on various parts of the ball is equal so that there is no net force on the ball pushing the ball one way or another. That is, the force due to air pressure on one side of the ball that tries to push the ball one way is exactly balanced by the air pressure on the other side of the ball pushing it the opposite way.

When the baseball is moving through the air, it experiences what is known as dynamic pressure. Looked at from the point of view of the ball, the on-coming stream of air molecules collides with the surface of the ball, pushing the ball backwards.

Said differently, there is a net force on the ball that is exactly opposite to its direction of motion. This force is call the drag force, although it is also commonly referred to as "air resistance". The drag plays an extremely important role in the flight of a fly ball.

For example, a fly ball that carries ft would carry about ft if there were no drag. The drag plays a less significant -- but still important -- role in the flight of a pitched baseball. If the baseball is also spinning, it experiences the Magnus force, which is responsible for the curve or "break" of the baseball. The direction of the force is such that the ball breaks in the direction that the leading edge of the ball is turning.

For example, a baseball thrown with backspin e. On the other hand, an overhand curveball "" has topspin, so that the Magnus force is down, in the same direction as gravity. If you hit the ball farther out than the COP, you'll feel a slight push on your fingers in the opposite direction, trying to open up your grip. But if you hit the ball right on the COP, you won't feel any force on the handle.

To find the COP on a bat, try this simple activity. A bat A ball A friend. When you hold a bat with your hands at the bottom of the handle a normal grip , the COP is located about six to eight inches from the fat end of the bat. If you choke up on the bat, the COP moves closer to the fat end. That's because the location of your top hand is the place you want the bat to pivot. Changing your hand's position on the bat changes where that pivot point is, which therefore changes the position of the COP to one that corresponds to the new pivot point.

To find the COP on a bat, hold it parallel to the ground in your hand. Make sure you hold it at the same place you normally do when playing a game. It's easier to feel the push if you hold the bat with only one hand; a two-handed grip helps to counteract the push in either direction. But be sure to hold it with the top hand in its "normal" position, no closer to the handle knob than you normally put your top hand.

Close your eyes, so you can concentrate on the sensations you feel with your hand. Have a friend throw a ball at the bat from a few inches away, starting at the end farthest from your hand and moving down the bat. The harder he or she can throw it, the better as long as they're able to control where on the bat they're throwing the ball.

Notice how the bat feels in your hand as the ball hits it. When we tried this at the Exploratorium, we could feel both a vibration and a force pushing on our hands. The amount of vibration and "push" varied, depending on where on the bat the ball hit. Some of us found it a little hard to distinguish between the two feelings, but if you can, the COP is where you feel the smallest push on your hand.

A bat is essentially a long stick. When you hit a stick off center, two things happen: The entire stick wants to move straight backward, and it also wants to rotate around its center. It's this tendency to rotate that makes the bat's handle push back on or pull out of your hands. When the ball hits the bat's COP, you don't feel a push or pull as the bat tries to spin.

That's because when the bat spins, it pivots around one stationary point. When you hit a ball at the COP, the stationary point coincides with where your top hand is. So your hand feels no push one way or the other. This is important if you want to hit the ball a long way. Every time you hit a ball at a point that's not the COP of your bat, some of the energy of your swing goes into moving the bat in your hands, not to pushing the ball so that it moves away from you farther and faster.

If less of the bat's energy goes to your hands, more of it can be given to the ball. The natural frequency of wooden bats is around cycles per second, or Hertz. Because the ball leaves the bat so soon 1 millisecond , the energy transfer to the ball is not too efficient. If the bat has been hollowed and corked, it's no longer as stiff and it will get an even lower natural frequency and an even less efficient transfer of energy to the bat. The baseball bounces off the bat faster than the cork can store the energy that could be put back in the ball.

The cork might deaden the sound of a hollowed out bat, but it doesn't propel the ball. It can't. So, balls hit with corked bats don't go as far. A corked bat is one in which a cavity has been drilled axially into the barrel of a wood bat. Typically, the diameter of the cavity is approximately 1 inch and it is drilled to a depth of about 10 inches.

The cavity may or may not be filled with some substance, such as compressed cork, small superballs, etc. Because wood has been removed from the bat and possibly replaced by some substance with a smaller density than wood, the bat is lighter by oz. Not only is the bat lighter, but the center of gravity, or balance point, of the bat moves closer to the hands.

In technical physics language, the moment of inertia MOI of the bat about the knob is reduced for a corked bat. You can think of the MOI as the "rotational inertia" of the bat. Just like the "inertia" or mass of an object measures the resistance of the object to a change in its translational motion, the rotational inertia measures the resistance to a change in its rotational motion.

The effect is easy to understand: It is much easier to swing something when the weight is concentrated closer to your hands smaller MOI than when it is concentrated far from your hands larger MOI. You can try such an experiment yourself. Simply take a bat by the handle and swing try to rotate it rapidly.

Then turn the bat around, holding the barrel, and try doing the same thing. You should find that it is easier to rotate it in the second case. Therefore, a batter can often get a higher bat speed with a corked bat than with a comparable bat that has not been corked. All other things being equal, a higher swing speed gives rise to a higher hit ball speed and greater distance on a long fly ball.

Of course, all other things are not equal, and the reduced mass in the barrel produces a less effective collision, as we shall see in the next section. An additional effect is that the lighter weight and smaller swing weight also lead to better bat control, which has a beneficial effect for a contact-type hitter, who is just trying to meet the ball squarely rather than get the highest batted ball speed.

The batter can accelerate the bat to high speed more quickly with a corked bat, allowing the batter to react to the pitch more quickly, wait longer before committing on the swing, and more easily change in mid-swing.

As has been pointed out by Bob Adair in his book, a batter can achieve the same effect legally by choking up on the bat or by using a lighter and therefore probably shorter bat. Of course, there are reasons one might not want to either choke up or use a shorter bat, especially in situations where you need to protect the outside part of the plate. In such a situation, a corked bat can provide a definite advantage. Many fast-pitch softball players take the issue of bat control to the extreme.

The efficiency of the bat in transferring energy to the ball in part depends on the weight of the part of the bat near the impact point of the ball.

For a given bat speed, a heavier bat will produce a higher hit ball speed than a lighter bat. That is why the head of a golf driver is heavier than that of an iron: you want to drive the ball further. By reducing the weight at the barrel end of the bat, the efficiency of the bat is reduced, giving rise to a reduced hit ball speed and less distance on a long fly ball.

This is the downside of using a corked bat. We see that corking the bat leads to higher swing speed but to a less efficient ball-bat collision. These two effects roughly cancel each other out, leaving little or no effect on the hit ball speed or on the distance of a long fly ball.

Similarly, if your timing and placement is precise but the power behind your bat is slack, you will not hit far at all. Lanky build and weak muscles are not going to cut it if you dream of hitting home runs in a baseball game. You need to build your upper body and muscles, so the most basic thing to do is regularly bring these muscles into action, exercise and toughen them up.

Try to do such exercises on a daily basis which involve your entire upper body. This will give you the requisite strength to hit a baseball farther. Most baseball players think that hitting is all about the upper body and that they can simply ignore the fitness of the lower body.

This is a grave mistake. When you are swinging your bat on the plate, your legs and trunk are playing a critical role in supporting your swing and adding momentum to it. So make lower body exercises a regular part of your drill as well. The lower body will help you add that extra bit of power into your hitting.

The way you hold the handle of a baseball bat determines the speed and power of your hit. If you choke up on the handle and hold the bat closer to the barrel, you are gaining bat swing speed but losing on the hitting power.