# What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-tried-to-hit-a-baseball-pitched-at-90-the-speed-of-light/627774>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 10, 2012, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-tried-to-hit-a-baseball-pitched-at-90-the-speed-of-light/627774 "2012-07-10T09:07:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**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:** [July 18, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-tried-to-hit-a-baseball-pitched-at-90-the-speed-of-light/627774/41 "2012-07-18T17:36:34Z")

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I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with an XKCD-worthy question to submit. Anyone else sent in suggestions?

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**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-tried-to-hit-a-baseball-pitched-at-90-the-speed-of-light/627774/42 "2012-07-18T18:14:26Z")

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> [@TokyoPlayer](#):
>
> [nitpick]There is a glaring error in either the story or the illustration.
> 
> The illustration does not show the batter in a bunt stance, which, with the exception of a really wild pitch, would be the only way for the ball to hit the bat.[/nitpick]

At that point he’s talking about the debris cloud, not the core of the baseball. I don’t find it implausible that the cloud has expanded enough by this point that part of it hits the baseball bat.

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