The National Pastime

My younger brother is the guy in the picture above. He's in 8th grade and just got into Iolani this year. He used to play in the Wai-Kahala Bronco League. On Labor Day, his team had a little get together/beach picnic at Ala Moana Beach Park. This gathering sort of reminded me of them playing baseball as I went (or was forced to attend) many of his baseball games. And of course, I had to think about the way physics played a big part in the sport.

From throwing to catching to batting to running, baseball is all about physics, especially the many concepts we've learned in the first couple of chapters. Displacement, velocity, acceleration, and gravity all have a big part in the game. Balls go from the pitcher to the catcher. Displacement increases as the ball gets farther from the pitcher or decreases as it gets closer to the catcher. The ball accelerates as the pitcher begins the windup and thus the ball's velocity increases. And when the catcher catches the ball, a sudden negative acceleration brings the velocity back to zero. And the whole while, gravity causes the ball to fall closer to earth the entire way. Baseball is full of physics that I didn't really notice but now I do.