# Baseball physics question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409 "2019-01-25T18:30:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/21 "2019-01-26T18:09:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Speaking abstractly, the bat would be _almost_ like an unanchored object, but the batter is still exerting some nonzero force, and imparting some nonzero work, during the brief duration of the collision, so there would be some slight advantage to the bigger batter. Not necessarily. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/22 "2019-01-26T18:31:34Z")
As someone who once played a level below semi-pro in men’s slow-pitch softball, I think I can add some color. The mass of the bigger guy is likely to indeed play a role in determining who can get the bat up to speed faster. And yes, grip strength is very, very important – if not critical – in determining that. (The physics model here is a double-pendulum, with extreme forces placed on the second fulcrum point.) Big, strong guys can ‘force’ and ‘push’ a bat through the zone, to be sure. But no big shot ever happened while the wrists were still locked down and holding on tight. A home run still? Sure. That happens all the time in the MLB. But you want to maximize things and truly let that bat fly? It’s going way faster than your hands are when it hits the ball. There’s a reason people talk about it being ‘effortless’, or about hitting a ‘sweet spot’. And there’s also a reason that the big shots are pulls. It’s because you see the ball coming and you have time to put all your physical things in motion and turn that energy plant as much as you can and extend those arms and hold on tight with the wrists and flail the head of the bat at that ball and hope – hope! – that it catches that ball square. And when it does catch it square, it doesn’t care if it came from a behemoth or a runt. It’s just mass on mass, in a violent collision that will send the little guy (the ball) a long way away and slow the big guy (the bat) enough to make it not hurt the guy who swang it. My guess would be that 95+% of amatuer softball players never experience the feeling when they are fully extended and the bat is no longer a part of them and they are still touching it but it’s doing what it will do. It takes a lot to have that kind of trust. But that’s also what it takes to hit it over the fence. If that’s what you want to do. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/23 "2019-01-27T00:39:05Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Alan Nathan is a scientist that studies this stuff. Here’s an article he posted about the batter’s grip at impact has zero influence on the path of the ball (in summary: the wave generated by impact that travels to the knob of the bat and back to area of impact takes longer than the duration of impact): > [The Grip Doesn't Matter](http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/grip.html) So, is this the final GQ answer? Does anyone have a better cite to the contrary? ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/24 "2019-01-28T20:45:23Z")
What if the batters are standing on a treadmill? [Sorry. I’ll see myself out.] ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/25 "2019-01-28T21:51:42Z")
So here’s another thought experiment to toss in there. 2 motors with their axis vertical. Each has a baseball bat attached to the motor shaft. In A it’s attached by a rigid steel bar. In B it’s simply attached by a piece of flexible cord. Both motors are started and the bats speeds are met say around 75mph, both sweet spots equal distance from the motor shaft. Baseball is shot at at 90mph at the sweet spot to make contact. Which ball goes further? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/26 "2019-01-29T02:05:43Z")
From the cite that **RaftPeople** provided, my non-GQ guess is that it won’t matter since it takes longer for the impact wave to get to the base of the bat and back to the ball than the ball is touching the bat. So, (to speak non-scientifically) by the time the bat “realizes” it’s attached to a steel bar instead of a flexible cord, the ball is already gone. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/27 "2019-01-29T17:05:55Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > So here’s another thought experiment to toss in there. > 2 motors with their axis vertical. > Each has a baseball bat attached to the motor shaft. > In A it’s attached by a rigid steel bar. > In B it’s simply attached by a piece of flexible cord. > Both motors are started and the bats speeds are met say around 75mph, both sweet spots equal distance from the motor shaft. > Baseball is shot at at 90mph at the sweet spot to make contact. > Which ball goes further? It might be the same, but I don’t think that’s the instructive takeaway, if we are talking about any matters at all of real-life practicality. What will happen in the case presented in the OP is that the smaller/weaker guy won’t really be able to get that bat up to the same speed as the other guy – or in other words, his motor with vertical axis just won’t turn as fast. If we want to just talk about abstractions, then that’s surely fine. But in the real-life scenarios, grip strength and mass and such matter. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409/28 "2019-01-29T20:01:48Z")
> [@SayTwo](#): > > It might be the same, but I don’t think that’s the instructive takeaway, if we are talking about any matters at all of real-life practicality. What will happen in the case presented in the OP is that the smaller/weaker guy won’t really be able to get that bat up to the same speed as the other guy – or in other words, his motor with vertical axis just won’t turn as fast. > > If we want to just talk about abstractions, then that’s surely fine. But in the real-life scenarios, grip strength and mass and such matter. I weigh about 180 pounds. I guarantee that a, say, 130 pound professional baseball player will be able to get the bat swinging faster than I can. The question is, if the bat is swinging at a certain speed, will it go further with the heavier batter. I think that’s answered, and I’m not sure what your post added to that. Are you saying that it’s impossible that a 100 pound guy will get a bat up the same speed as a 200 pound guy? Extra weight doesn’t mean extra strength. Plus, the 200 pound guy could just put less effort into the swing – we just need the bat speed to be the same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-physics-question/828409.md?page=1)