# Can a human cleanly throw a baseball through a pizza box **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264 "2012-10-29T22:02:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/81 "2012-10-31T14:10:10Z")
Whose kids are those? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/82 "2012-10-31T14:36:30Z")
As the humidity goes up cardboard gets considerably weaker and easier to punch through. With a steaming pizza inside a box the cardboard would certainly get weaker. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/83 "2012-10-31T14:40:42Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > Yep. I gotta agree. The pizza box didn’t show any recoil when it was hit. _None_ of the objects did, and that violates physical laws regarding conservation of momentum: -The cloud of water from the exploding soda bottle was stationary before falling straight down. -The watermelon didn’t deviate from its ballistic trajectory even slightly. It didn’t even start spinning due to the eccentric hit from the baseball. -The pizza box didn’t begin wobbling even slightlyafter the impact with the ball. Moreover, the pizza box hit the ground _on its edge,_ and when the box (with no visible damage resulting from that edge-on impact) is opened, the pizza is perfectly intact, except for the hole through it. If you drop a boxed pizza from chest height to the ground in a vertical orientation, the pizza is virtually guaranteed to be wadded up against one side of the box after touchdown. If that doesn’t happen, then the crust is extraordinarily (perhaps inedibly) crispy, and even then, the toppings will still slide to one side. The evidence says that if they did actually toss a boxed pizza in the air, then it wasn’t hit by a baseball (or any other object) in that video, and the pizza they were examining afterwards definitely was not the one shown flying through the air and landing on its edge. -The pinata didn’t deviate from its ballistic trajectory either; it should have been knocked in the same direction the ball was traveling. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/84 "2012-10-31T16:45:36Z")
I’m highly amused so many of you think this was real. edit: So they hit something and then Kari says “what else do we have?” then suggests the watermelon, (badly acting) as if coming up with the idea on the spot. NO ONE wastes a watermelon they intended on eating that way. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/85 "2012-10-31T16:56:13Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > I’m highly amused so many of you think this was real. I feel just the opposite. 🙂 > [@](#): > > edit: So they hit something and then Kari says “what else do we have?” then suggests the watermelon, (badly acting) as if coming up with the idea on the spot. But bad acting does not make the video fake. > [@](#): > > NO ONE wastes a watermelon they intended on eating that way. Similar logic to the bad acting. I cannot believe so many think this video has been faked. Surely there must be some information somewhere about this that can verify one way or the other, especially since there has been so much speculation about it. I also wish I had not become interested in this topic, have wasted too much time on it already. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/86 "2012-10-31T17:06:12Z")
> [@the lone cashew](#): > > I cannot believe so many think this video has been faked. Surely there must be some information somewhere about this that can verify one way or the other, especially since there has been so much speculation about it. I also wish I had not become interested in this topic, have wasted too much time on it already. There’s going to be an episode on Nov 4 with Matt Cain, so hopefully that ends the speculation. For all I know, it could be a Mythbusters episode on how viral videos have made us overly skeptical of real feats of nature. You know, kind of how almost anything amazing posted, no matter how real, gets a big “FAKE!!!” within two or three comments. I happen to think that this one actually is fake, and I’m not one to yell “FAKE!!!” on reflex (like, when the soldiers throwing puppies off the cliff video came out years ago, I absolutely thought it was real, despite many insisting it couldn’t be, and it turned out that it was.) But this one just isn’t passing the smell test for me. However, I wouldn’t put it past Mythbusters to do something “meta” like the above. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/87 "2012-10-31T17:12:23Z")
I can’t see anything contrived or hard to believe about this video. I believe the pizza boz was flipped over by the thrower and they waved him off so it appeared the kids inspected it first. You can see the ball leave his hand and hit the target. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/88 "2012-10-31T17:52:53Z")
Two people so far said that the pizza was completely intact - have you seen the video? The inside of the box is completely covered in sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/89 "2012-10-31T18:14:50Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > Two people so far said that the pizza was completely intact - have you seen the video? The inside of the box is completely covered in sauce. From landing upside down. Deep dish pizzas have sauce on the top. Doesn’t mean the pizza wasn’t intact. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/90 "2012-10-31T18:21:08Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > You can see the ball leave his hand and hit the target. You can see Legolas shoot arrows at orcs in Lord of the Rings too, and see the arrow leave the bow and hit the target. I hate to say it but “they can do anything with computers nowadays”. I bet a skilled high schooler with the right editing software could do that. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/91 "2012-10-31T18:22:04Z")
Well, looks plausible to me, assuming the carbonated drink bottle was doctored to explode nicely, and there was some kind of imitation pizza analog that stays in place when the box is turned sideways, rather than sliding down and folding up like a real hot pizza would. I mean, I guess there’s the possibility that Mythbusters is taking a lesson from Snopes and trying to teach us a lesson about gullibility or lack therof. But I don’t think I’d bet that way. ---
**Author:** ![slitterst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecc23a/32.png) [@slitterst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slitterst)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/92 "2012-10-31T19:44:38Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Well, looks plausible to me, assuming the carbonated drink bottle was doctored to explode nicely, and there was some kind of imitation pizza analog that stays in place when the box is turned sideways, rather than sliding down and folding up like a real hot pizza would. They do specify deep dish. Those don’t fold as easily as your average NY style thin crust. I can’t believe I just dragged myself into this argument. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/93 "2012-10-31T20:01:35Z")
> [@slitterst](#): > > They do specify deep dish. Those don’t fold as easily as your average NY style thin crust. > > I can’t believe I just dragged myself into this argument. I was thinking the same thing; that a doughy-thick pizza might certainly hold its shape well enough to pull this off as presented. And unless staff was waiting anxiously for the pizza delivery to arrive before doing the take, I think it’s logical to assume the pizza had gotten cold by then, had sat around for an hour or two. After all if you’re only going to toss it and waste it, who cares whether it’s hot or not. Now someone please shoot me, I honestly don’t have a vested interest in promoting this thing, and will be the first to admit if wrong about this. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/94 "2012-10-31T20:17:10Z")
I feel guilty for having posted this in General Questions - this is clearly a matter of opinion without further information. I thought somebody might be able to produce a ‘making of video’ or that the principles would have announced their fakery, but no such luck. There’s a TON of opinion in this thread, but scant few facts. I have heard nothing that changes my OPINION that it is fake, but I certainly have no facts on my side, nor do I find any of the opinions raised here to be overwhelming evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/95 "2012-10-31T20:21:05Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Well, looks plausible to me, assuming the carbonated drink bottle was doctored to explode nicely, and there was some kind of imitation pizza analog that stays in place when the box is turned sideways, rather than sliding down and folding up like a real hot pizza would. > **[Centrifugal force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_force)** > > Centrifugal force is a fictitious force in Newtonian mechanics (also called an "inertial" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It appears to be directed radially away from the axis of rotation of the frame. The magnitude of the centrifugal force F on an object of mass m at the perpendicular distance ρ from the axis of a rotating frame of reference with angular velocity ω is > > > > F > = > m > > ... I think the video’s real. Anything filmed in HD looks a little fake to begin with. Some Doper needs to get a large pizza and head down to the batting cages. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/96 "2012-10-31T21:56:11Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I’ll send $10 to anyone who can send me a video of them throwing a \*knife \*through a pizza box (with pizza). $5 if you want to save money and just throw it through the box without the pizza. I’d imagine the increase in pressure at impact due to it being a knife will more than make up for you not being Matt Cain. That would pay for the pizza, and I could still eat the remains, after. Does this apply to _everyone_ who sends you a video, or just the first person? I’m seriously tempted to take you up on this (free pizza!), but can’t get to it for a few days. I know damn well that it would be trivial to throw a knife through a pizza & box. I’ve thrown them through heavier things than _that_. Would a machete count as a knife? It’s the only throwable knife I have handy. Does it have to be a deep-dish pizza? Because I can’t get one around here. Do I have to hit a moving target? Because I haven’t even tried in over 20 years, so probably can’t, anymore. That said, while I’m confident that I can throw my machete through a pizza & box, I also don’t think that would prove anything at all about whether or not a thrown baseball can do so. I’ve shot enough objects like the ones in the video to know that a baseball (just like any other projectile) moving fast enough will do exactly what you see in that video. The only question is ‘how fast does it need to go, and can he throw one fast enough to achieve those results’. I have no idea about that. Whether or not he can _hit_ a moving target like that isn’t an issue. I’ve seen people _reliably_ hit running rabbits with thrown rocks. Someone who throws things fast and accurate for a living is almost certainly able to do _that_. My opinion on the video is: “Probably real, but given how easy they are to fake these days, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it’s not.” ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/97 "2012-11-01T10:27:04Z")
Fakeo fake-a-diddle. Definitely a viral ad. I’d stake my reputation on it. Turning this into a poll of sorts, we have: **Real (6):** Omar Little, Land Shark, Fubaya, D18, HoneyBadgerDC, Sinisterniik **"I don’t see any reason to think this isn’t real" (8):** dracoi, Chronos, Firstname, the lone cashew, Noel Prosequi, Frylock, Quercus, Cheshire Human **Fake (15):** phreesh, Mijin, pulykamell, Terr, Pasta, WickedJay, Patty O’Furniture, Mesquite-oh, Gaqua77, Cugel, Munch, glaeken, Jake, Machine Elf, rogerbox **I (Mijin) couldn’t tell (4):** leftfield6, tellyworth, Pitchmeister, Slitterst So…after all that counting…no real Dope consensus. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/98 "2012-11-01T11:19:38Z")
He’s hitting the objects just at their highest point of their trajectory, when they are most easy to hit (‘hanging’ in space), which is the best strategy for the thrower. If it was CGI they probably wouldn’t have bothered with that detail, would they? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/99 "2012-11-01T11:33:57Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > To be honest, it’s the first pitch that really makes the least sense to me. I don’t see why a soda bottle would explode like that when hit by a baseball, even at 100 mph. Exactly. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles (ie soda bottles) are phenomenally tough. I play with water rockets made out of PET bottles. They will take 120 psi without breaking a sweat. I regularly fire them up without recovery aids and let them smash into the ground at 70mph+. They will crumple into half their length and then pop right back into shape when pumped up to 120 psi again. Over and over and over. Over 120 psi they will start to deform. Not pop. Not rip. Just deform somewhat. Working with PET is hard because it is so tough. Without heat, you just can’t stretch it. I’ve built rigs out of heavy steel bolts to try to stretch loops of PET and the rig has failed before the PET stretches or distorts. An 80mph baseball wouldn’t do a damn thing to a PET soda bottle. It _might_ pop the cap which is the weak point in the system, but that will just cause soda to spurt out the end. The bottle will not pop in a cloud of soda like in the video. Ain’t no way. And if they faked that, I can’t see any reason to think the rest of it is real. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/100 "2012-11-01T14:04:24Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > That would pay for the pizza, and I could still eat the remains, after. Does this apply to _everyone_ who sends you a video, or just the first person? First person. And let’s limit it to anyone with a PayPal account. I’d really prefer you not go with a machete - that doesn’t really seem all that comparable to the mass of a baseball. Doesn’t have to be a deep dish (those are expensive). Doesn’t have to be moving, but let’s keep a minimum distance of 20 feet (is that reasonable? It looks like Cain’s throwing at least 40 feet.). I don’t have any doubt that Cain could hit any of those objects being thrown. I have little doubt that I couldn’t hit them - hand-eye coordination is a pretty amazing thing. I just have doubts regarding the mechanics of the throw and the structural integrity of a pizza box v. a baseball. Also, for anyone contemplating it, it’d be cool if you could also show what happens when you throw a baseball at the target as well. I know it won’t be near the velocity Cain is throwing, but I’d like to see it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264.md?page=6)