Posted by: Jeff (kidd@islc.net) on Thu Dec 23 20:03:24 1999

Hi everyone,

In the previous thread being discussed, I also pointed out another possible explanation, which would account for different exit speeds and ball travel distance even between otherwise identical swings producing identical trajectories -- the contact point on the bat. The further away from the node of percussion the ball-bat collision takes place, the less efficiently the energy transfer from bat to ball. It wasn't clear from Jack's origninal post if the phenomena he cited was taking place during a controlled experiment or if he was simply comparing, say, batting practice swings that registered the same bat speed. I got the feeling it was the latter, and if that's the case, I think this would explan a lot of the differences. If it was the former and the contact point was being controlled for, obviously your answer lies elsewhere.

I think my post was at the bottom (I think it got screwed up somehow because I noticed my name wasn't attached.)

Anyway, in case anyone is interested, it's there.

Regards and happy holidays to everyone,
Jeff