from Amazon
Monday, July 11, 2011
Physics of bats and balls
A nice recap article, with mentions of Alan Nathan.
To test the theory, the authors placed several dozen balls in conditions ranging from 11 percent to 97 percent relative humidity for weeks, and temperatures from the 30s to nearly 100 degrees, then fired them against metal cylinders that approximate bats. Again measuring the coefficient of restitution, they found that the colder and moister a ball was, the less bounce it had. Translation: a ball hit on a hot dry day at an Arizona ballpark will go noticeably farther than the same ball hit on a frigid, foggy day at Boston’s Fenway Park.
As for Denver’s Coors Field, the researchers calculate that a humidity increase from 30 percent to 50 percent would take 14 feet off a 380-foot fly ball—enough to decrease the chances of a home run by 25 percent.
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