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Physics and Baseball: An Intersection of Passions

Nathan The talk will focus on the subtleties of the baseball-bat collision, the intricacies of the flight of a baseball, and many other things. I will investigate some very practical questions and show how a physicist goes about trying to answer these questions. Some examples:

What is the"sweet spot" of a bat?
How does the batter's grip affect the batted ball?
Why does aluminum outperform wood?
What determines how far a fly ball travels?
How much does a curve ball break?
What's the deal with the knuckleball?

The talk should have something for everybody, whether your interest is baseball, physics, or the connection between them.