# How far could Superman hit a baseball? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2008, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484 "2008-12-03T09:30:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![timbicile59](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@timbicile59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timbicile59)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/41 "2008-12-04T01:37:46Z")
How much does this super guy weigh? mass has to enter the equation . ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/42 "2008-12-04T01:40:20Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I saw jim Rice check his swing and have the bat break without hitting the ball. That guy was stronh. Unfortunately his kryptonite was the Yankees. A little more recently, Manny Ramirez did it twice during the same game. I think bat-breaking has reached historic levels as a higher proportion of the weight is put into the fat part. Doubtless Superman would come up with a better design. ---
**Author:** ![unclelem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ac91a4/32.png) [@unclelem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclelem)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/43 "2008-12-04T03:33:24Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > I can’t get the app working on my computer It’s a Flash application, so you need Flash installed to view it. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/44 "2008-12-04T04:32:26Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > A little more recently, Manny Ramirez did it twice during the same game. I think bat-breaking has reached historic levels as a higher proportion of the weight is put into the fat part. Doubtless Superman would come up with a better design. Thought/Pretty sure it’s the shift to maple bats from ash. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/45 "2008-12-04T04:38:24Z")
> [@unclelem](#): > > It’s a Flash application, so you need Flash installed to view it. I’ve got Flash, the applet loads, but I can’t set any of the parameters, and the buttons don’t do anything. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/46 "2008-12-04T04:59:48Z")
Kirk Gibson did a checked swing and hit it in the seats. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/47 "2008-12-04T06:21:44Z")
> [@muttrox](#): > > In baseball, if the pitch hits the batters hands, would it still be a legal hit? Maybe Supes could aim so that his fists did the actual contact. If the pitch hits the batter’s hands, the ball is dead. Either he’d be awarded first base or if he was swinging, it would be a strike. ---
**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/48 "2008-12-04T16:40:46Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > If the pitch hits the batter’s hands, the ball is dead. Either he’d be awarded first base or if he was swinging, it would be a strike. Accident or not, you don’t bean supes unless you’re sure he won’t be pitching next inning… ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/49 "2008-12-04T16:48:01Z")
I’d think he could just choke way up on the bat, well past the thin part. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/50 "2008-12-04T16:53:01Z")
This premise was used in an episode of _The Greatest American Hero_ in which Ralph, wearing the alien super-suit, does indeed knock the cover off a ball in a monster home-run. And I recall a Superman LP (audiobooks for fogeys) that described Superman throwing a baseball and having it land in Osaka. And of course [this illustration](http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superman/66-1.jpg) seems relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/51 "2008-12-04T17:52:03Z")
So upon hitting the ball really hard, superman could exhale – legitimately – really hard as well, and essentially (and maybe accidentally on purpose) use the ‘‘super ex-hale’’ to reduce the drag on the ball by affecting the air ahead of the ball instead of actually pushing the ball with a gust of breath. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/52 "2008-12-04T18:09:11Z")
Deleted ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/53 "2008-12-04T21:31:19Z")
Well, how far could a baseball go, period? Whatever the upper limit is on how fast and far a baseball can go before it falls apart is how far Superman can hit it. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/54 "2008-12-04T22:05:44Z")
Can’t give an answer, but here’s my thoughts on possible limiting factors: I wish I had a little more time, because lots of these can be guesstimated with a few assumptions and a little physics. Anyway, in more or less reverse order of how important I think they’d be. There’s definitely an upper limit to how fast a baseball can go through the air before it burns or comes apart (probably a little of both). Obviously this is an absolute limit – doesn’t matter how fast Supes can hit the ball if it vaporizes on the way. Given how fast air resistance increases with velocity, and the relative surface area to mass of a baseball, that absolute velocity limit is probably not going to take a baseball miles and miles. But even to reach that velocity there are some problems. The bat has to be able to take the stress of having the fat part accelerated to that speed by turning the handle. Lots of sideways stress and at some acceleration it’s going to be like hitting the handle with a hammer: the bat will just shear off. Even if Superman was give more time/space to accelerate, say by turning around a few times like a discus thrower, the bat is going to be under a lot of stress just from rotating at that speed. Centrifugal force might pull the fat part right off the end of the bat (yes, centrifugal force is very real from the bat’s point of view, which is what matters). Then there’s the separate issue of whether the wind resistance on the bat would create a strong enough force to break it. I suspect wood bats might have problems at the baseball-in-air speed limit, and there’s some kind of metal that would be OK, but don’t have time to do the easy physics to put any numbers here. And finally the bat has to be able to transfer it’s energy to the ball. The bat and the ball have to be able to deform enough to absorb energy, then spring back to push the ball. There’s definitely also a limit on how much the ball can deform without, as the engineers say, experiencing structural failure like a watermelon on concrete. One clear limit is that the bat can’t be going faster than the speed of sound through a baseball (which is going to be much higher than the speed of sound through air), but you’ll have problems well below that. I suspect that this elastic limit is going to be well below the baseball-in-air speed limit, and that even with his exotic alloy bat, Supes is going to be literally knocking the stuffing out of the ball well before he turns it into a flaming meteor. (Which means he might actually be able to blow it farther that he could hit it with a bat!) ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/55 "2008-12-05T00:59:15Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > And of course [this illustration](http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superman/66-1.jpg) seems relevant. Woah. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/56 "2008-12-05T02:12:34Z")
> [@unclelem](#): > > [This simulation](http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/projectile-motion/projectile-motion.swf), which takes air resistance into account. indicates that even if he could impart escape velocity, the ball would travel less than 500 m. Tripling the initial velocity only gains you about another 60 m. I managed to get it up over 600m by firing at an angle of 17.5 degrees, but I wouldn’t put too much stock in it. If you choose “pumpkin” and plug in numbers for the [Aludium Q-36 Pumpkin Modulator](http://www.douglascoulter.com/Personal/punkin__chuckin_.html) (muzzle speed 1000fps) it only goes about 370m, but the real pumpkin gun fires them 1300-1400m. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/57 "2008-12-05T02:55:12Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > I had the strangest dream… > > Bestowed with super-human strength, I decided to use my powers not to fight crime and injustice, but rather to hit monstrous homers… at batting practice. I suppose there’s some deep meaning hidden in there. Or I may have been remembering the young Clark Kent kicking a football beyond the horizon in the Superman movie. > > Anyway, it left me wondering: if Superman was real, and he was real in the real world, how far could he hit a baseball? Here are the parameters: > > 1. The only thing super is Superman > 2. He’s using a standard Major League-approved wooden bat > 3. He’s hitting a standard Major League-approved baseball > 4. He’s facing a regular Major League-approved pitcher > 5. No significant wind Zero feet. He’d swing the bat so fast that it would catch on fire from the friction with the air and vaporize before he made contact. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/58 "2008-12-05T19:06:27Z")
> [@unclelem](#): > > It’s a Flash application, so you need Flash installed to view it. I thought we were talking about Superman, not the Flash. So, we have comic book guys, baseball geeks, and physics and engineering nerds all gathered in one place. This thread may implode from its sheer SDMBishness. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/59 "2008-12-05T19:25:03Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > And of course [this illustration](http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superman/66-1.jpg) seems relevant. Who’s playing shortstop? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484/60 "2008-12-05T20:05:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Who’s playing shortstop? I don’t give a damn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-could-superman-hit-a-baseball/475484.md?page=4)