corked bats - is there really an advantage?

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigUmp56

Reducing the mass (lowering the moment-of-inertia) increases the swing speed - which increases batted-ball speed. But at the same time the lower mass reduces the effectiveness of the collision - which decreases the batted-ball speed. Which effect is greater is a toss-up.

But the force the bat imparts to the baii increases with the square of the bat speed, and decreases linearly with the mass.

So, if the mass is decreased by 10% and the speed can be increased by 10%, the force can be increased by about 9%. It's easy to measure the reduction in mass. It's harder to measure the increase in bat speed.