Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Wed Oct 24 07:13:59 2001

the age-old argument of lighter bat vs. heavier bat is a mass vs. bat speed debate, correct?
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> how does that transfer to aluminum?
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> My phsyics is a little rusty, but obviously a heavier wooden bat can have more mass than a lighter wooden bat, and I thought that was the argument: more mass on the ball can produce distance just as a faster bat can.
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Justin -
mass is the amount of matter in an object. Weight is a measure of gravity's pull on an amount of mass. Since we play baseball only on the Earth and Earth's gravity is effectively uniform, weight and mass are 'the same' as far as hitting discussions go. (but don't say that to a physicist!)
Given the same batspeed, same contact (sweet spot, center on center angle, etc.) a 32 oz bat should hit a ball farther than a 26 oz bat.
A 26 oz aluminum bat can hit a ball farther than a 26 oz wooden bat, especially if the aluminum bat is double or triple walled, pumped up with nitrogen and creates a rebound effect greater than wood.
That is the issue with high performance bats - they 'juice' the contact and hit the ball farther. THey are also typically lighter - so you have a lighter bat allowing greater batspeed and juicing the ball. Got dangerous in college, therefore the -3 rule and the 10% increase max. rule on rebound effect.
> but is it actually weight? can an aluminum bat weighing 32 oz. hit the ball farther than a 26 oz. bat? they will have the same mass, am I correct?
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> obviously we're assuming the same bat speed for both bats for consistency.