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But...but...but...
Some leagues and ages don't pitch from 40 feet! Might be 35 or 43 or 46.
Baseball pitchers release the ball 3-4 feet in front of the plate? Even Randy Johnson?
Front of the batter's box versus back of the box? Every batter's a little different.
What about the cross sectional area of the ball? A softball is bigger, so there is more drag and it slows at a greater rate than the baseball. Are you ready to introduce a little calculus into your FAQ's? Probably not.
No matter which of these adjustments you make, your answer will be nothing more than a rough estimate. It's impossible to come up with a formula that takes every variable into consideration. So make it simple.
Stick with the 60 ft/40 ft ratio between the baseball and softball pitching distances. (You can forget about that darn 6 inches, since this is a rough estimate and it won't make much difference).
That's 60/40, or 3/2, or 1.5.
Using that ratio, a 55 mph softball pitch at 40 feet will reach the plate in about the same amount of time as a baseball pitch traveling:
55 mph X 1.5 = 82.5 mph
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