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Originally Posted by greymule
Watching the Yankees–Blue Jays game this afternoon.
Yankee announcer Michael Kay just informed the viewing audience that some people think a fastball cannot rise, but "that last fastball definitely went up."
Just thought you all ought to know.
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There's a great book entitled
The Physics of Baseball written by physicist and baseball enthusiast, Robert K. Adair Ph.D. that, among other interesting issues, addresses the "rising" fastball. A baseball pitcher cannot make it rise. On the other hand, a softball pitcher can mostly due to the delivery technique and the short distance between the rubber and plate.
There was a great baseball
article in Popular Mechanics, of all places, many years ago that gave a very technical explanation of the physics of various pitches.
To quote from the article:
The laws of aerodynamics tell us that for a baseball to physically rise (that is, curve upward) as it approaches the batter, the Magnus force would have to be greater than the weight of the ball, and the rate of spin required to generate this much force is far beyond the ability of any pitcher. Thus, the rising fastball is an optical illusion. The baseball simply falls less than the batter expects it to.
David Emerling
Memphis, TN