Baseball Physics: Anatomy of a Home Run

msn.com ^ | July 19, 2007 | Davin Coburn

[gpapa]

When Ryan Zimmerman stands at the plate, there's no time to analyze physics. "I'm thinking about what the pitcher might throw in that situation," says the 22-year-old rising star with the Washington Nationals. "I have to eliminate as many options as I can before he releases the ball." Twenty times last season, Zimmerman pounded a pitch into the seats. Now PM stops the clock to examine ball spin, bat speed and the rest of what Zimmerman instinctively understands about hitting. Here's how those home runs happened.

A Supersize Sweet Spot

A bat vibrates at multiple frequencies when it collides with a ball. How much energy is transferred to the ball — instead of spread through the bat and the batter's hands — depends on where the collision occurs. A bat vibrating at its fundamental frequency has a node of zero vibration about 6-1/2 in. from the barrel end. This was long thought to be the bat’s sweet spot. But Rod Cross, a physicist at Australia's University of Sydney, found that the spot is more like a zone. At a second frequency, a bat has another node about 4-1/2 in. down the barrel. Hits between the two produce minimal vibration — and transfer more energy — at both frequencies. "Every ball I've hit that I haven't felt, I knew I hit well," Zimmerman says.

[bobbyd]

"Every ball I've hit that I haven't felt, I knew I hit well," Zimmerman says.

Yep

[Tired of Taxes]

Marking for my 11yo son to read.

He plays baseball, and baseball is all he talks, thinks, and dreams about, too. For now. :-) I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

[jwh_Denver]

That explains those damn zingers.

[So Cal Rocket]

"Every ball I've hit that I haven't felt, I knew I hit well," Zimmerman says.

That's why I didn't like aluminum bats... you couldn't tell when you hit the ball on the sweet spot because (unless you hit the ball right above your fists) it felt the same way every time you contacted the ball.

[So Cal Rocket]

From the Article: Contrary to the lore surrounding historic, titanic blasts — like Mickey Mantle's fabled 565-ft. shot in 1953 — physicists estimate the farthest a man can hit a ball, at sea level, without help from the wind, is about 475 ft.

I saw Harmon Killebrew hit a home run at the old Angel Stadium (when the Big A Scoreboard was behind the fence in left field). The Santa Ana winds were blowing that day IN towards home plate from center field. They measured the blast the next day at 525 feet.