I've been watching a lot of baseball on TV lately. I think it's amazing how professional pitchers can cause the path of their pitches to curve (or deviate from a straight-line path) radically. Here are some questions for discussion:
- Many baseball terms exist to described pitches that curve. For example, curveball, screwball, slider, and cutter. What are the distinguishing characteristics of these pitches? Are there other terms that belong on this list?
- What causes a pitch to curve (or break)?
- Does the shape of a baseball affect how much it breaks? If so, what shape ball would break the most?
- Does the speed of the ball affect how much it breaks?
- Thinking about 3 and 4, what kind of ball could you use to demonstrate various breaking pitches? Ideally, the ball would be easy to throw and it would very noticeably break.
Physics S.W. (4th)
ReplyDelete2. When the baseball is released for a curve ball, it starts out with a spinning motion that the pitcher makes. While it's spinning, air pressure on one side of the ball is greater than on the other side. This keeps it in the air and curve at the same time while it is traveling.
Thanks for the comment this week!
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