Posted by: Joe (joe.flowers@nofreewill.com) on Sun Feb 27 07:20:07 2011

The other implication of this is that any bat-ball theories based on the kinetic energy equation (ke=1/2 * m * v^2) must be flawed, like the math I did earlier in this thread.

Running realistic numbers for bat weight and bat speed on my earlier equations in this thread imply the same flaw too, so those equations (ideas) are no good here.

Likewise, I do not like the bat-ball theories based on the conservation of linear momentum either because of the extreme guessing done with the loss of energy during the bat-ball collision. e.g., I don't like the "coefficient of restitution" hand waving.

To try an apparently different approach to shine more light on this problem, I would like to see some theories (and math) based on the law of the conservation of the velocity of the center of gravity. That looks like a direction that could bear some fruit (more insight).

For example, when a rocket is shot into the air at an angle and its fuel runs out and it subsequently explodes, then the center of mass of all of those pieces (assuming a vacuum) still travels on the same path and at the same speed as what the rocket would have gone if it had not exploded. How can that be applied to a bat-ball collision?

With all other things being equal, this also implies that the better bats will be relatively slower (lower bat speed) just after contact with the ball because they will have transferred more of their energy/velocity to the outgoing ball.

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