The world of physics is not one that I have spent the time of day to stop and think about. Now having to put some effort on studying the subject I can perceive it like, it’s not me who has to revolve around physics; physics revolves around me. I am just one unit in a vast world, where multiple psychics’ phenomenon’s have been explained and discovered by scientists creating laws, to give a purpose to all, to let the people know how they were able to explain a sort of action that, like gravity for example has taken a toll over the universe. I cannot change or explain how the world has been working for so many years, and it’s not that I am not capable of explaining, discovering something new or differing on a law that for years has been stipulated; so many people need to not ask themselves on who things occur, we should just let it be. Or let the minority of scientist in the world continue on discovering and making questions. We all have a role in life.
My weekly routine includes waking up, going to the university, and before the sun sets I start softball practice with my team. While talking to my teammates on how I could apply physics to softball, we concluded that in the game, force, momentum, direction, velocity and many other physics concepts fit the descriptions. Of the many questions I asked myself, the ones that most intrigued me were: Why when a runner that is heading towards first base has to keep going instead of stopping instantly? When hitting a ball with a bat, it should be hit in the “sweet spot” so the batter doesn’t feel the residue vibration that the contact of the ball and bat creates. Why is this? When catching a ground or fly ball, or bating a ball, what forces are applied to it?
The first question can be answered easily; it is difficult for a runner heading straight towards first base to make an easy stop because of the momentum that the body carries. Momentum is mass times velocity, they are combined and act as a unit. So, the weight of the person at a high velocity to get to the base makes it hard for the runner to stop. The second question on why should a hitters hit the ball in the bats “sweet spot”, this is because in that sweet spot where there is minimal vibrations, the reaction force will always be zero so it doesn’t matter how hard the ball is thrown or how hard the bat is swung you will not feel it. The last question that asks what forces are applied in some actions of the game? While hitting a ball the forces that are applied are the velocity of the hitters swing (the force of the bat), and the balls mass and velocity which is thrown with; also when there is an action, there’s a reaction, were the force exerted by the bat on the ball is equal to the force of the ball exerted on the bat. When catching a ground ball there’s are two forces exerting on the ball, first the bat and then the ground exerts friction force on the ball for it to lose velocity. When fielding a fly ball there are two very important forces acting on it, gravity and air resistance. This is the most interesting and a very good example to explain because as the air resistance that exerts an upward force against the ball clashes with the gravity, they become equal; so the net force of the ball falling is zero, this is how we calculate how much we need to move to be in the right position at the right time to catch the ball.
I am sure that there are more concept that I could apply physics to, like the time a hitter needs to see the ball and hit it when there is less than 0.5 seconds to recognize if it’s a good ball to hit or not. But the questions that are answered previously are some common topics on softball or even baseball because they are similar, and for people that don’t have complete knowledge on the sport, from a simple action of running can understand part of it. It is very interesting how sports are so connected with physics and, sports were not made according to physics principles but were just made to have fun and have something to do in spare time. The persons that created early sports didn’t know of all the laws that are now known to humanity, and this is why the people don’t revolve around physics, physics revolve around us. The world revolves around us; the world is physics.
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