[LibWhacker]

A Jai alai "high lie" ball travels faster than the scoop used to throw it.

Are you sure about that? Seems to violate the laws of physics as they were taught to me, though admittedly we never looked at the physics of Jai alai! Thanks very much for that, though, BC . . . It'll be interesting to see what others say about it.

[TalonDJ]

It does some counter intuitive at first but the math is sound. The reason is the radial acceleration component. I can't rattle off the number off the top of my head. At home I have a copy of the proceedings of the space conference I first saw this at and in there are the complete mathematics behind this.

[delacoert]

Are you sure about that?

He's right, you've got to rememeber that the ball moves in the scoop. The ball leaves the scoop faster than the tip of the scoop is moving.

[Born to Conserve]

""A Jai alai "high lie" ball travels faster than the scoop used to throw it.""

"Are you sure about that? "

Think about it. The scoop is rotating at some velocity, and the ball is rolling forward and outward on that scoop. The balls tangential velocity is going to be the sum of the tangential velocity of the scoop where the ball is, and the tangential velocity of the ball relative to the scoop.

It amounts to the same thing as a marble rolling down your car's hood going faster than your car.