The physics of sports video
The home run
Olivia Wreden, olivia gonzalez, christian pedersen, and me.
What exactly is this?
In this project the end goal for every group was to find all the physics involved in a sports action to help improve the game of San Marin's athletes. My group decided to find the components of physics for hitting a home run. Over the course of our project we found the following calculations. The potential energy of the bat, acceleration of the bat, force of the bat against the ball, and finally the best angle to hit an home run.
Calculations
Potential energy of the bat- Potential energy is energy within an object due to its position. For this calculation, we had to find the PE of the bat. We did this by finding the mass of the bat (.538kg), acceleration due to gravity (9.8m/s^2) and the height(.8382m). We plugged these calculations into the equation Potential energy= Mass x gravity x height. The potential energy of the bat is a total of 4.425 Joules.
Acceleration of the bat- After the baseball has been pitched, the batter begins to swing his bat which accelerates it. We used the change in velocity divided by the change in time to find the acceleration of the bat. We plugged in our velocity of 11.43 m/s and divided it by the avg time it is in contact with the ball which was .51 seconds. The final solution was 22.41 m/s^2.
Force of the bat vs the ball- The contact against the ball and bat propels the ball through the air.We used the equation of Mass x velocity=force x time. We plugged in our calculations into the equation as follows: .145kg(45m/s)=F(.001s). The force was a whopping 6,525 newtons!
Angle of attack- Theoretically, the best angle to hit a home run is about a 45 degree angle assuming there is no air resistance. Since we live in an imperfect world, we have to hit the ball at a 25-30 degree angle to have the best chance of hitting a home run.
Acceleration of the bat- After the baseball has been pitched, the batter begins to swing his bat which accelerates it. We used the change in velocity divided by the change in time to find the acceleration of the bat. We plugged in our velocity of 11.43 m/s and divided it by the avg time it is in contact with the ball which was .51 seconds. The final solution was 22.41 m/s^2.
Force of the bat vs the ball- The contact against the ball and bat propels the ball through the air.We used the equation of Mass x velocity=force x time. We plugged in our calculations into the equation as follows: .145kg(45m/s)=F(.001s). The force was a whopping 6,525 newtons!
Angle of attack- Theoretically, the best angle to hit a home run is about a 45 degree angle assuming there is no air resistance. Since we live in an imperfect world, we have to hit the ball at a 25-30 degree angle to have the best chance of hitting a home run.
Reflection
Personally, I thought that the project turned out better than expected. We had problems in our team between two members which made getting things done harder. Eventually i attempted to mediate their conflict and see what they were arguing about. Though they agreed to work better together they still seemed to have a certain grudge against one another. So over the course of the project my team worked rather well except for a few petty arguments occasionally. We decided to divide the team into roles: Olivia W as the pitcher/speaker, Olivia G as speaker/good brain stormer, Christian as the batter/editor, and me as the cameraman/speaker. This worked rather well since we all knew what we had to do and where we had to be at certain times. While Olivia W,Christian and I were filming, Olivia G would be working on the next calculation for our next step. This helped us get the video done quite quickly so we could have more time to edit. I found that i'm not actually that bad of an cameraman and i also found that i'm also a decent mediator when it comes to conflicts between team members. The only problem were the minor conflicts. Besides that, my group collaborated efficiently and had a relatively positive attitude towards one another.
9/10 would film again.
9/10 would film again.