Warning!! Danger!! Annual Off-topic Baseball Thread '07!! Beware!!

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

If you really want to discuss this, I believe that you are incorrect. I believe that the average speed is the same if the object travels in a two-dimensional plane or if it makes a parabola, due to the force of gravity.

But that's not what I was talking about.

Thus the total distance traveled should be the same according to the laws of physics.

Oy. I'm glad I never took physics at Georgetown! How can the length of a straight line between two points be the same length as a parabola connecting those points?

[Mark Padgett]

The old movie "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" was on Turner Classic the other day. It stars Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. In the movie, they were part of a double play combination, O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg. Gotta love it.

[Nevadaref]

Good Lord! I'm not writing what I'm thinking today. I've got to be too tired from staying up for the fireworks last night. Here's what that sentence should have said:

Quote:

Thus the time taken to cover the total distance traveled should be the same according to the laws of physics.

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

Oy. I'm glad I never took physics at Georgetown! How can the length of a straight line between two points be the same length as a parabola connecting those points?

Non-Euclidean geometry.

BTW while I took that class in DC, it was taught by the visiting Dean of Yale.

[Jurassic Referee]

You guys should wander over to the baseball forum. They have some absolutely great discussions over there on "rising fastballs". Y'all would fit right in.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

You guys should wander over to the baseball forum. They have some absolutely great discussions over there on "rising fastballs". Y'all would fit right in.

Speaking of rising fastballs, anyone heard from Chuck lately?

[mick]

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

Speaking of rising fastballs, anyone heard from Chuck lately?

I think he's watching the Tigers.

[2 out, bottom of 5th, 1-2 on Marcus Thames --> Jack City. 1-8 and waiting for a new Red Sox pitcher]

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by mick

I think he's watching the Tigers.

[2 out, bottom of 5th, 1-2 on Marcus Thames --> Jack City. 1-8 and waiting for a new Red Sox pitcher]

I was unfortunately watching that, too.

Oh, well. We're still the only AL East team above .500.

[Nevadaref]

Final		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		R		H		E
	Minnesota	4	1	1	6	2	0	4	2	0	20	21	1
	Chi White Sox	0	3	1	0	3	1	2	1	3	14	18	5

Did anyone see this crazy game? 34 runs were scored and it wasn't played in Colorado or Cinci!

PS Dexter, those are the same thoughts that I was having, but I'm not reaching the same conclusions as you. Essentially, I'm thinking that the g vector will cancel itself out from the half of the parabola that is ascending and the half that is descending, leaving one with the same average. Let me ponder it for a bit and get back to you.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Non-Euclidean geometry.

Sorry - I'm a Euclid fan.

To respond to your post:

Let's take two balls. (A) is a "line drive" - hit parallel to the ground, and we disregard the effect of gravity. (B) is a more traditional HR ball - hit in a parabolic arc (where we do have gravity). We'll assume that the horizontal component of both of their speeds are equal (let's say 10 m/s, for example).

If this is the case, B will have to have a greater overall AVERAGE speed, and we can see this in two ways.

First - geometrically, by combining vectors. Both A and B have the same horizontal speeds. However, ball A also has a vertical component to its speed. When we add the vectors together, the sum of the speeds of A will be greater than the speed of B.

Second - algebraically. In Mick's original example, he simplified the HR ball (B) to a line-drive style hit (A). Given this, the time for A and B to travel the same horizontal distance is the same. However, ball A travels a further overall path than B does. If two objects travel different distances in the same amount of time, they must have different speeds. (With the ball that travels further obviously having the faster speed).