The Physics behind Baseball

Edwin Herrera Montalvo

Baseball is considered America’s pastime since the 1960’s. Baseball is an important part of my life since my grandpa and father were baseball players. I knew all the rules and tricks of the sport; what I didn’t know is that behind everything in baseball, even sayings, physics is involved.

The coach says, “This is the last inning, we have the momentum.” The announcer says, "The game is almost over and the Angels have the momentum.” The team captain says, “We have the momentum, we need to use it to finish them off!” These were some of the phrases I heard while I played baseball. Momentum can be defined as mass in motion. Since all objects have mass; if they are motion, then it has momentum. The amount of momentum that an object has depends on the mass and velocity. In baseball, mass can be compared to how many runs the team is ahead or behind and the velocity can be compared to the motivation the team has. When people use the word momentum in baseball they mean that the team is on the move and it’s going to take some effort to stop them.

While growing up, I remember hearing the coach say that the speed of the ball depended on how you grabbed the baseball and how fast you did the throwing movement. To be honest, I always thought that it wasn’t true and I wouldn’t really listen. I played catcher; all I worried about was telling the pitcher what to pitch.  I didn’t really think of the mechanisms that the pitcher used to throw a 90 mph fastball or a curve ball. Now that I am taking physics, it turns out that the coach was absolutely right. How a baseball travels through the air is due to aerodynamics. As the ball travels along the field, turbulence occurs in the stitches of the baseball allowing air to stick to them and cause them to slow down at a slower rate. The same stitches that help the baseball reduce its speed can also make the ball change directions drastically, also known as the curve ball. Baseball players use physics in order to make the ball go faster or throw a curve to strike out an opponent. 

When batting, baseball players want to hit the baseball with a part of the bat called the “sweet spot”. The reason why the baseball tends to go farther when hit in the sweet spot is not a mystery or miracle, it is simple physics. Objects vibrate at their natural frequency when they are disturbed. When waves interfere witch each other they form standing waves. These standing waves have alternating nodes and antinodes. The nodes are the regions where there is little to no amplitude, so there isn’t vibration. Baseball players want to hit the ball on the node of the bat, also known as the “sweet spot”, so there is little vibration and maximum energy transmitted to the baseball, making it reach farther. 

Baseball is impacted so greatly by physics that about four physics topics could be covered and taught with one simple baseball game. Physics cannot only explain a baseball game; it could also explain every single sport that exists. As a matter of fact, physics does not only explain why things happen in sports, it actually explains how everything happens in the world. 

"Baseball Physics." Top End Sports n. pag. Web. 22 Apr 2011. .

Giancoli, Douglas C. Physics for Scientists & Engineers with Modern Physics. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

"Momentum." Top End Sports n. pag. Web. 22 Apr 2011. .

"Nodes and Anti-nodes." Physics Classroom n. pag. Web. 22 Apr 2011. .