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November 18, 2011

Strange But True!

Q. What tips did the future baseball pitcher pick up in his college physics class?

A. He learned that a spinning ball may curve as much as 12 inches on its way to the batter, says physicist Louis A. Bloomfield in “How Things Work.” Its direction depends on the axis of the baseball's rotation, tending toward the side of the ball turning toward the pitcher. A ball thrown with backspin experiences an upward lift force, enough to make the ball hang in the air unusually long and appear to “hop.” For some pitches, the trickery stems from LACK of spin: A knuckleball, for instance, has almost no rotation, with the airflow over the ball's seams pushing the ball sideways and causing it to “flutter.” But throwing a spinless ball requires great skill, enticing some pitchers to resort to lubricating their fingers to get the ball to slip on out. “Like its legal relative, this so-called spitball dithers about and is hard to hit. The same is true for a scuffed ball.”


 
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