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Do Cold Balls Bounce Less?
In 1965, the Detroit Tigers accused the Chicago White Sox of refrigerating the balls used by their pitchers. Should a team care if their batters are pitched ice-cold balls? You can find out.
Slip at least two baseballs into a plastic grocery sack to keep things clean and chill them in a refrigerator for an hour. While you're waiting think about how chilling changes other things, like pancake syrup or butter. Then conduct this test to find out the cold facts.
Work outdoors on a paved area or indoors on a smooth, hard surface (after checking with an adult).
Slip at least two baseballs into a plastic grocery sack to keep things clean and chill them in a refrigerator for an hour. While you're waiting think about how chilling changes other things, like pancake syrup or butter. Then conduct this test to find out the cold facts.
Work outdoors on a paved area or indoors on a smooth, hard surface (after checking with an adult).
Have someone hold a measuring stick straight up with the starting end of the scale on the floor. Drop the balls one at a time from the top of the stick. Be sure someone is watching closely to check exactly how high each ball bounces. Write down each ball's bounce height. Divide by the number of balls tested to find the average bounce height.
Next, spend five minutes warming up the balls using anyway you can think of to do the job safely, such as holding the balls in warm hands or even setting them on a hot water bottle.Then repeat the bounce test with the warmed balls.
Next, spend five minutes warming up the balls using anyway you can think of to do the job safely, such as holding the balls in warm hands or even setting them on a hot water bottle.Then repeat the bounce test with the warmed balls.
Were the warm balls better bouncers?
They should be!
They should be!
Now, here's the rest of the story.
Before this event, Major League home teams used to supply game balls to the umpire one at a time throughout the game. So the home team's pitchers could be given chilled balls. Worse, according to the White Sox, the Tigers baked the balls given to their team's pitchers. That meant the Tigers were slugging hot balls.
To end the squabble, today, Major League rules require the home team to supply all the baseballs to be used during the game two hours before game time.
There's a cork core inside a rubber ball surrounded by nearly a quarter mile of woolen yarn, a winding of cotton/polyester yarn and a leather jacket sealed with 108 stitches (not one more or one less).
The finished ball must weigh between 5 and 5.25 ounces (141 and 148 grams) and be between 9 and 9.25 inches (22 and 24 centimeters) around.
You'll need a wooden bat and a hammer (either a real hammer or a wooden mallet) for this activity. Your job is to find the one special spot on the baseball called the sweet spot.
The Balls Have Changed--But Not Much
In the past 100 years, baseballs have only changed in one way. In 1974, cowhide replaced horsehide as the baseball's covering. Otherwise a baseball is exactly the same, today, as it always was.
There's a cork core inside a rubber ball surrounded by nearly a quarter mile of woolen yarn, a winding of cotton/polyester yarn and a leather jacket sealed with 108 stitches (not one more or one less).
The finished ball must weigh between 5 and 5.25 ounces (141 and 148 grams) and be between 9 and 9.25 inches (22 and 24 centimeters) around.
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This CT-scan lets you peek inside a real baseball to see its parts. Don't you love the unique way technology lets us look at things? If you were on a design team to make a baseball go even farther when smacked, without changing the weight or size, what change might you make? |
Find The Sweet Spot
It has that name because striking a baseball with exactly that spot on the bat will make it travel farther than striking it at any other point. That happens because striking the ball at the sweet spot causes the least amount of vibration within the wooden bat. And that means the greatest amount of energy will be transferred to the ball. So where is the sweet spot?
Have a partner grab the end of the bat's handle and let the bat hang straight down.
Use the hammer to tap the bat gently near its fat free end. Then repeat tapping the bat gently at points closer and closer to the handle.
Usually striking the bat at the sweet spot will produce a slightly different sound. The person holding the bat should also feel less vibrations when the bat is struck at the sweet spot.
Have a partner grab the end of the bat's handle and let the bat hang straight down.
Use the hammer to tap the bat gently near its fat free end. Then repeat tapping the bat gently at points closer and closer to the handle.
Usually striking the bat at the sweet spot will produce a slightly different sound. The person holding the bat should also feel less vibrations when the bat is struck at the sweet spot.
To be precise, measure about six inches (15 centimeters) up from the fat end of the bat. That's where the sweet spot is usually located.
When a Major League player strikes the ball at that
spot, it's not uncommon for the ball to leave the bat
traveling 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour.
In the past, Major League ballplayers tried to make balls travel farther by swinging heavy bats. Here's a photo of Babe Ruth at bat. The Home Run King regularly used a 42 ounce (1,190-gram) bat. Sometimes, he even used one that weighed 52 ounces (1,474 grams).
Today, players have decided they can knock balls farther by swinging faster. So they are opting to use lighter bats--ones weighing 32 or even 28 ounces (907 or 793 grams).
You might be interested in knowing that in the very early days of baseball, players were given four strikes before they struck out.
When a Major League player strikes the ball at that
spot, it's not uncommon for the ball to leave the bat
traveling 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour.
In the past, Major League ballplayers tried to make balls travel farther by swinging heavy bats. Here's a photo of Babe Ruth at bat. The Home Run King regularly used a 42 ounce (1,190-gram) bat. Sometimes, he even used one that weighed 52 ounces (1,474 grams).
Today, players have decided they can knock balls farther by swinging faster. So they are opting to use lighter bats--ones weighing 32 or even 28 ounces (907 or 793 grams).
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